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FORWARD MISSION STUDY COURSES 


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YOUNG PEOPLE’S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT OF THE 
UNITED STATES AND CANADA 


THE UPWARD PATH: 
THE EVOLUTION OF A RACE 


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4) Ss 


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Cay area 
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SLOW THROUGH THE DARK 


Slow moves the pageant of a climbing race; 
Their footsteps drag far, far below the height, 
And, unprevailing by their utmost might, 

Seems faltering downward from each won place. 

No strange, swift-sprung exception we; we trace 
A devious way thro’ dim, uncertain light— 

Our hope, through the long vistaed years, a sight 

Of that our Captain’s soul sees face to face. 
Who, faithless, faltering that the road is steep, 

Now raiseth up his drear insistent ery? 

Who stoppeth here to spend a while in sleep, 

Or curses that the storm obscures the sky? 

Heed not the darkness round you, dull and deep; 

The clouds grown thickest when the summit’s high. 


—Paul Lawrence Dunbar 


” 


«¢ AUNT GILLY 


She has lived to the age of eighty-six honored and respected by all who know 
her, and greatly beloved by her nurslings 


‘THE UPWARD PATH: 


THE EVOLUTION OF A RACE 


BY 
-MARY HELM 


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CINCINNATI: JennINGS & GRAHAM 
NEW YORK: Eaton & Marys 


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To 
MY FAITHFUL OLD NURSE 
“AUNT GILLY” 
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 
WITH TENDER LOVE 
AND GRATEFUL MEMORIES 


OSCR 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

HEISE OU MCHLOM Vatets's )s.< aielainvairareiacierse sisletch tatate « xii 

eRe RACOMM tay ccain el els osalacl sjelmlevetmlele rts clareeie eta xvii 

ESATGO IANO LOM seh Cds: eames Ny) alent a xxi 

aime thewAprican’ Jungle s...,-2)s okies ss ieiaieiecrnes 1 

PAE NT CAN OLAVELY eee o's, dive ciails aes hae seiinee 31 

III First Years of Freedom.................5- 65 

IV Industrial and Economic Progress.......... 105 

WiPSOctMaC@onditions )0 ese) ye eecte toate sek 143 

VI Educational Opportunities................. 185 

Wii Religious Development...) .)../o. ses ss 2s 219 

VIII The Next Step: Need and Supply........... 267 

APPENDIXES 

PATO DEC geAG TVA 5 ee Vent alarcolalt eatacstare sietcae niatatals 301 
Appendix B Negro Melodies..................-. 302 : 

Appendixi Ca Bibliography seco! . 2. sc ols hcateoteeses 308 

Appendix D Main and Minor Geographic Divisions 
of Continental United States..... 315 


Appendix E Proportion of Negro to Total Popu- 


Appendix 


TEREKOL Ss Gas el ie ete MBI RMI AERIS 316 
Negro Population and Per Cent of 
otal Population. <lejlese we sie jeratece 317 


E 
Appendix G Distribution of Negro Population.... 318 
Appendix H 


Negro Population for Physiographic 
HD IVASTONS cts jereye keep Suse sa Siar ahi iaehe 319 


Appenc... I Sexes and Ages of Negro Population 


by States and Territories......... 320 


Appendix J Negro Population for 55 Counties 


Having at Least 75 Per Cent..... 322 


Appendix K Per Cent of Illiterate in Negro Pop- 


ulation at Least 10 Years of Age.. 323 


Appendix L Negro Population at Least 10 Years 


Index 


of Age Engaged in Specifie Occu- 
Pablo irs cite ever ae eed 324. 


BY 
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ILLUSTRATIONS 


Mm NUTIN UM CUTE ousiedel vate) aul a5 olola: Sueley siayeyath ose Frontispiece 

eS t ATIC a VIM AGEN oe oo /clo ab ctelajcee «sree ieeoe Page 11 

Typical Group of West Africa Natives........ Ae ela 

RISE DOC HOT! 5 ser evelieh cnc c, toe, a: dha incayasthn widiatatslors) as, Sete Le, 

Slave Cabins, Lawrenceville, Virginia......... seh ned 
| Slave Cabins, ‘‘ The Hermitage,’’ Savannah, 

(CXEGH ST S650 BS SAUTER OEM cao SR tee Cr AG, 
seMbiT AAT MAINO Ms 6: 5'-) 0, sto ia\an)ashin afaseyevelsyaue usta geese OW eH 
Cotton Mill, Greensboro, South Carolina....... id ats) 
Mitton’ Hield,\Georpiay..\. « 2.\...).).icccawe oss «es hap 
eneral Om On POW ALG «ojo 5:3 << 2 desis vines neieled « cel geg eye) 
Class in Domestic Science.................00% £¢ 103 

| Blectrical Engineering...................000. enn LOS 
| St. Paul Normal and Industrial School, Law- 

MONCEWMMG VRE OTO one lake) Sheena ache eves luvs os) 0's Soy Loa: 

| Farmers’ Conference, Lawrenceville, Virginia.. ‘‘ 121 
| Two Houses Owned by a Negro, in One of 
Which He Lives, Charleston, West Virginia ‘‘ 147 
PIN PRONG HUAI LLY Cciicls eile dase Soaletetca eee se aes CON AAT 
| J. W. E. Bowen, President Gammon Theological 
oS CIN ATSV ey, Spo ie slats Nee ene tee Nad Lay alas 
_ Booker T. Washington, President Tuskegee Nor- 
mal and Industrial Institute............. SO) Vals! 
Wie ovonewall ’? Jackson........0.2.6252500000 ORD 
Walter B. Hill, Ex-Chancellor University of 
Greoneiae es noe eichraorae epee atelaa una nine nop sci ae lictes 
Napier Public School, Nashville, Tennessee.... ‘‘ 193 
| Jubilee Hall, Fisk University, Nashville, Ten- 

IGHROE ver scakrinrs v/osle: abe ahthavala!rche leavers oehernsere NOS 
St. Mark’s Industrial School, Birmingham, Ala- 

[SESHED a her a a ees ae ep a MAS hana )r4 


xii Tilustrations 


Graduating Classes, Meharry Medical College, 


Nashville, Tennessee.......-+---+++0++-- Page 197 


Emory Halls for Boys, Tuskegee, Alabama. ... 
Parker Cottage for Girls, Tuskegee, Alabama. . 
Typical Group of Students.......... Bets fade atievn fo 
Physical Laboratory........+.+seeeesseeeeees 
W. T. Vernon, Register of the Treasury....... 
James S. Russell, Archdeacon for Work Among 
_ Negrces in Southern Virginia............ 
W. S. Scarborough, President Wilberforce Uni- 
VOLSIty 5 6. <=. os ows nichole eae etter 

St. Athanasius’ Protestant Episcopal Church, 
Brunswick, Georgia........+..+-+----+- = 
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia..... 
Jubilee Club, St. Paul Normal and Industrial 
School, Lawrenceville, Virginia..... Sd yas 
Students, Bishop Payne Divinity School, Peters- 
burg, Virginia. ........--..--sseeesceeee 
Women’s Bible Training Class, Howe Institute, 
Memphis, Tennessee........-++++2++eeeee 

St. Mark’s Chapel, Wilson, North Carolina.... 


“c“ 


“ce 


“ec 


Introduction XV 


power, the power of response to advantage 
and the passion for holding on to it may 
suggest a compensation for the apparent 
absence of initiative capacity. 

Those who read, and especially those 
who study, this book will not miss the one 
truth above all others to be kept clear by 
- American Christians—namely, that the 
presence of ten million Negroes in this 
country is not primarily a Southern prob- 
lem nor even a national problem which 
puts our political institutions to the test. 
It is profoundly a missionary problem, 
and it puts our Christianity to the test. 
It is the Christian’s gospel that is in the 
crucible. 

Speaking as a Southern man, I have 
never dared to risk a Christianity or a 
faith of Christianity as trustworthy for 
myself or mine which doubted the efficiency 
of Christ for all the difficulties that have 
discouraged the philosophers in relation to 
the Negro. 

The Christian ‘‘ not only confronts sin 
and claims that it can be destroyed, and 
stands before sorrow and claims that it 
ean be transfigured, he stands amid the 
misunderstandings of men, amid the per- 


xvi Introduction 


versions in the purposed order of life, the 
ugly twists that have been given to fellow- 
ship which were ordained to be beautiful 
and true, and he proclaims their possible 
rectification in Christ.’’ 

To the end that we all stand at this angle 
of outlook, ‘‘ and, having done all, to 
stand,’’ may this book go forth. 


Joun E. Waite. 
Atlanta, Georgia. 


PREFACE 


Many great interests with their problems 
have been presented in the study courses 
of the Young People’s Missionary Move- 
ment, but none have exceeded in its impor- 
tance to the nation the subject presented 
in this volume—the American Negro; yet 


the very naming of this subject makes ap- 
parent the difficulty of its presentation and 


of securing an impartial investigation by 


those who read. The author has endeav- 


ored to give a true history of the Negro’s 
past, his progress and present condition, 
“without fear or favor’? telling of his 
successes and failures; and now asks that 
the reader—North and South, white and 
black—will lift the bandage of prejudice 
from the eyes, unstop the ears closed by 
sectional animosity, and eliminate from the 
heart race bitterness, that the book may 
be dispassionately studied. Thus only can 


xviii Preface 


the subject be viewed aright, past misun- | 
derstandings be corrected, and present con- 
ditions realized, in order to prepare for a 
future of vital importance to both races. 
There is no more need of sentimentality 
and no more room for injustice in the study 
of this subject than in that of any other. 
There will be need possibly to face squarely 
some views, different from those accepted 
in the past; there will be need to forget 
some things that have been told of the past, 
and to remember some things that Christ 
says which there is danger of our forget- 
ting, ere wise, righteous judgment can be 
exercised in dealing with the present need 
of the race that has dwelt for centuries 
like a native alien, ‘‘ a stranger within our 
gates.’’ 
The Negro has been a valuable asset of 
the nation, yet a bone of contention, to the 
hurt of the nation. It is time for this un- 
christian contention to cease, it is time for 
the whole nation to unite in securing the 
good of its whole population—every part 


: 
| 


Preface xix 


for its own sake, every part in its relation 
to the whole. It is with this desire and 
purpose that the author has written this 
book and now presents it with the prayer 
that its simple, direct narrative may be 
blessed of God to the nation, and the Negro 
race that forms an integral part of the 


nation. 
Mary Heim. 
Helm Place, 
Elizabethtown, Kentucky, 
June 1, 1909. 


EDITORIAL NOTE 


TrroucH the courtesy of the Council of 
Women for Home Missions, Miss Mary 
Helm, the author, and the Fleming H. 
Revell Company, publishers, The Upward 
Path is placed before the public. The orig- 
inal text-book, written by the same author 


under the title of From Darkness to Light, v 


has been revised to meet the needs of an- 
other class of students. The Upward Path 
contains eight chapters under new titles, 
but the changes and additions are not suf- 
ficiently extensive to distinguish it from 
the book, From Darkness to Light, except 
in form and illustrations. 


7 


SAN JUNGLE — 


The African is Nature’s spoiled child. Throughout 
much of his continent she is lavishly kind to him. She 
feeds him almost without the asking. She clothes him 
with tropical sunshine. If his necessity or his vanity 
calls for more covering, she furnishes it—again with no 
excess of labor on his part—from leaf or bark or skin. 
Everything that has to do with the primitive demands 
of his physical well-being is, as it were, ready at his 
hand. Intellectually, he is untrammelled by tradition or 
practice. He has kept himself free from educational 
entanglements. No a b e’s, no puzzling multiplication 
tables, no grammatical rules, no toiling over copybooks, 
harass his brain. . 

Aside from his wives and children, a man’s house- 
hold may include slaves. His wives not only may be 
his slaves, but all of his female slaves may be his con- 
cubines. . . . The freedom of a slave is not greatly 
restricted and it is possible for him to accumulate prop- 
erty of his own. But the utter disregard for human life 
in Pagan Africa makes the slave wholly dependent upon 
his master’s caprice for his very existence. Punish- 
ment, as a matter of course, may be meted out to him 
at the slightest provocation. . 

African Paganism or Fetichism is a religion of dark- 
ness. Its prayers are petitions for merey and impreca- 
tions upon enemies, rather than praise and thanksgiving, 
Its gods are malignant. Love for them is unknown. 
Hope, in the Christian sense, an anchor to the soul both 
sure and steadfast, is foreign to pagan thought. The 
African conceives himself as beset behind and before, 
above and below, by innumerable ill-tempered spirits, 
all, with one accord, consciously and constantly attempt- 
ing to frustrate his endeavors, and all seeking his in- 
jury and death. He thinks that deceased relatives covet 
his company in ‘‘ Deadland,’’ and for some time after 
death lurk about their old haunts with snares of dis- 
ease and violence. —Wilson 8S. Naylor 


I 
IN THE AFRICAN JUNGLE 


BP BERE are three great questions that Three Questions 
claim attention, when considering the 
life and destiny of a man or a race: 
** Whence comes he?’’ ‘‘ What is he? ’’ 
“ Whither goes he?’’ The first calls for a 
record of facts that must be set down 
truly and in proper sequence, with rela- 
‘tion to that which is past and that which 
is to follow. It involves heredity, and his 
natural traits and tendencies; his ability 
to progress toward a higher state of devel- 
opment; his power to form a new environ- 
‘ment, or properly to use the one in which 
circumstances have placed him. The 
‘second question deals with his present 
status, and sets in array the conditions 
that form and surround his life to-day, 
growing out of his use or abuse of those 
of yesterday—his achievements and his 
failures. The third is speculative, since 
‘the answer must be found in the future; 
yet it may be safely based on the character 


: 3 


Law of Progress 


< 


A Study of 
Origin Necessary 


4 The Upward Path 


and trend of the life that has been. No 


—— 


man’s to-morrow is an entirely new crea- 


tion, but a result of many yesterdays. The 
past, present, and future of a race present 
successive but continuous steps in its evo- 
lution. 


The universal law of evolution, that of - 


progressive development from the lower 


condition to the higher, has made no excep- 


tion of human life, and the history of man 


reveals his origin as very low in the scale 
of civilization. The Negro race, like other 
members of the human family, began in a 


condition of savagery. Owing to many 


contributing depressive causes, the large 


mass of the race in its native African 


jungle remains in its primitive state. The 


Negro in America has, through a new en- 


vironment, escaped many retarding condi- 
tions, and has passed with unnatural 


rapidity through processes of evolution 
that have left the race as a whole far be- 


hind. This does not mean that he has lost 
race identity, but that race progress is 


possible. 
While it is the Negro in America we are 


to study, we cannot understand our subject 


without knowing something of his origin 


In the African Jungle 5 


and ancestry in his native land, that we 
may understand the hereditary traits, and 
even beliefs, that influence the race as it is 
with us to-day in America. 

The prehistoric Negro is supposed to 
have entered Africa from the northeast 


in a dwarfish type and using only the 
rudest stone implements. The big black 


Negro type developed in the Nile basin 
and spread due west. These two types 
were, so far as we know, the exclusive 


human inhabitants of the whole of Africa 


south of the Sahara Desert down to 
four hundred years ago, with the excep- 


tion of Arab and Persian colonies, or 


the east coast seekers of gold, and those 
Galla herdsmen who invaded equatorial 
Africa and brought with them the first 
elements of Caucasian civilization to the 
black man. 

The northern coast of Africa belonged 
to the white man with some admixture 


of the black. The eastern side became 
the domain of the mixed race which 


may be called the Ethiopian. Below 


the line of 18 degrees north latitude, 
right across Africa, the Negro country 
was almost entirely closed to intercourse 


Whence the 
Negro Came 


Territory 
Occupied 


Effect of Early 
uropean 
Conquest 


Negro 
Subdivi 


Race 


sions 


| 

6 The Upward Path ; 

| 

with the Caucasian. There they dwelt 

five hundred years ago in a condition of 
absolute brutishness. 

Modern Africa may be said to have 
been rediscovered by the Portuguese five 
hundred years ago. Then came the 
Spaniards, followed by the Dutch, the 
British, and the French. All sought by 
conquest to gain dominion, power, and 
gold; all warred with each other; and all 
made captives of or destroyed the na- 
tives, whose low race status made them 
subservient to the dominant Caucasian 
without imbibing or developing any of | 
the racial traits of their conquerors, 
Save in a rude imitation of their cus-— 
toms and habits, often the worst. This © 
seeming adoption disappeared when the 
outside compulsion was removed, because 
their distinctive racial characteristics 
were antagonistic to those of the white 
race. Individuals may be permanently 
affected by environment, but race hered-— 
ity is found in the mass. | 

The Negro race had and has many 
subdivisions, nations, and tribes, differ-— 
ing as greatly from each other as the — 
nations that go to make up the Cau-— 


In the African Jungle 7 


-casian race. We are versed in the char- 
acteristics that differentiate the peoples 
of Europe and their representatives 
coming to this land. We do not always 
consider this in dealing with the Negro 
subject, and do not realize how com- 
plicated is the study. 

Dowd in his valuable work, The Negro 
Races: A Sociological Study, while using 
the word Negro as ‘‘a general term to 
‘include more or less black skin and 
woolly hair,’’ makes five subdivisions of 
the Negro type: ‘‘ First, the Negritos, in- 
eluding the dwarf races of the equatorial 
region, the Bushmen of the Kalahari 
| desert, and the syee inn of the south- 

ern steppe. 

_ * Second, fiat Nigritians, including all 
of the natives with dark skin and woolly 
hair occupying the territory of the 
) Sudan... 
oe’ Third; fh Fellatahs, a race supposed 
to have sprung from crossings of the Ber- 
bers of the desert with the Nigritians of 
_ the Sudan. 
_ ‘Fourth, the Bantus, . . . occupying 
almost all of West Africa below the 
Sudan... . 


Dowd’s Five 
Divisions 


Tribal 
Differences and 
Resemblances 


Unlike 
Characteristics 


American 
Negroes Chiefly 
Pantus 


a — 


8 The Upward Path 


‘* Fifth, the Gallas, including all of the 
lighter-colored people of Hast Africa 
from the Galla country to the Zambezi 
River.’’! 

These five divisions he subdivides into 
many tribes, having marked differences 
in their political, social, and industrial 
conditions and habits, and in their reli- 
gious beliefs, or rather superstitions. In 
all, however, there are fundamental re- 
semblances. In all are to be found 
polygamy, slavery, witchcraft and their 
resultant evils. 

Mr. Smythe, minister from the United 
States to Liberia and a native-born 
African, says that he had knowledge of 
two hundred tribes on the west coast 
alone, and describes them as more un- 
like in their characteristics than French 
and Germans. This difference is mani- 
fested in color, features, intelligence, and 
possibility for acquiring the arts of ecivil- 
ization. 

The Negroes in the United States came 
originally, to a large degree, from the 
western coast—the Bantus. Among them 
were representatives of many tribes, and 


1The Negro Races, xi, xil. 


a 


= ea 


In the African Jungle 9 


the differences that existed in Africa are 
still to be noted in their descendants by 


_ those who study them closely. 


Notwithstanding the efforts to gain a 
foothold in Africa by the nations men- 


tioned, at the beginning of the nineteenth 
_ eentury the continent of Africa was prac- 
| tically unknown to Europe, save the 
_ fringes of it. Possibly the best study of 
' conditions of the native African can be 


made on the west coast, where there was 


‘originally the least contact and inter- 


mixture with the white race, and yet 
later a larger knowledge of them by the 
whites. Much that follows will have 
special reference to those on the west 
coast. 

While there was and is a marked dif- 
ference between the great divisions of 
the African race, both in physical appear- 
ance and in many characteristics, and we 
find as varied customs and manner of life 
as there are tribes, yet there are funda- 
mental traits belonging to the race that 
can be seen in all. There are different 


_ types, to a large extent due to the modify- 


ing effects of climate and contact with 


_ other peoples, but as there is a color-line 


A Baus West 
Coast Africans 


Fundamental 
Race Traits 


10 The Upward Path 


‘“ between the Negro or black race’’ and 
the white Caucasian, or yellow Mongolian, 
so there are mental race traits that make 
as clear a demarcation between these great 
races and differentiate them to an even 
greater degree. The pigment under the 
Negro’s skin and his kinky hair do no 
constitute the chief difference between him 
and the straight-haired white man. 
Emotional, Under some conditions the Negro may 
Imaginative he warlike and fierce, under others he may 
be gentle and indolent; but he is always 
emotional and lacking in self-restraint, 
easily excited either to anger or laughter 
Impulsive, illogical, he is easily influenced. 
by that which appeals to his feelings, good 
or bad. His physical senses are acute and 
dominate his being even where there is 
knowledge of moral laws that should re- 
strain the appetites or desires aroused by 
them. The desire to possess what pleases 
the eye or taste leads to theft. He is imag- 
inative without being inventive, and is 
therefore a romancist rather than an in- 
ventor, and this power makes him an inim 
itable story-teller, or a liar that stops at no 
exaggeration. 
He is a child of nature, but has more 


West AFRICA VILLAGE 


TYPICAL GROUP OF WEST ArFrRiIcA NATIVES 


In the African Jungle 11 


fear of than love for his mother. He does 


‘not look with pleasure upon the broad } 


landscape, but studies minutely the animal 
and vegetable life around him, and pos- 
sesses himself of nature’s secrets, not with 
any innate love of science, but for his per- 
sonal gratification. His mind is objective, 
and his life is a day-by-day existence that 
left to itself takes no forward step, and 
"generation after generation remains the 
e. His vanity and love of show and 
ain is inordinate, at times Iudi- 
‘ rous in its physical expression, and ren- 
“ders him sensitive to any lack of apprecia- 
tion. He is an optimist that has no care 
for the morrow and its needs; this may 
make him lazy or improvident, or give him 
absolute faith in the providence of God if 
he becomes a Christian. He loves fun and 
rolic, dancing and music, and this last 
Bendency becomes the favorite expression 
of his emotions and has a marked race 
character. 
It is impossible to give in detail the 
: traits and characteristics of a race or peo- 
ple that will seem altogether correct, be- 
cause of the many individual exceptions, 
' class modifications, and local surroundings. 


Inclined to 

Outward Show, 

Improvidence 
leasure 


Only Broad 
Characteristics 
Can be Given 


12 The Upward Path 


But there are a few traits so marked tha 
they cannot avoid observation and which 
adhere to the subconscious life of the race 

‘ as a tendency that finds expression as 
varied as the circumstances surrounding 
the individual, and may result in a surpris- 
ing reversion to type. 
peel tattle. A king or chief in western Africa has 
Forms of Justice little power beyond that of declaring and 
waging war, deciding palavers according 
to the unwritten law of custom, and in- 
flicting the punishment due. He has no 
rights over the property of others nor 
powers of taxation. There are no higher 
state forms as in civilized lands. There 
is no judicial system. Rules are handed 
down as tradition, by word of mouth. 
Capital punishment is executed by the ac- 
cuser in various modes, formerly by burn- 
ing, torturing, and amputation by piece- 
meal. Blood atonement is everywhere 
practised, and it is a duty devolving upon 
the blood relatives. ‘‘EHach family is held 
responsible for the misdeeds of its mem- 
bers. However unworthy a man may be, 
his people are to stand by him, defend him, 
and even claim as right his acts, howaeea 
unjust. He may demand their help, how- 


a 


In the African Jungle 13 


ever guilty he may be.’?! A stranger is 
entertained hospitably, and must be pro- 
tected by the village as long as he is their 
guest, even though he be a criminal. 

Negroes themselves originated the slav- 
ery of one another. Before the slave-trade 
brought to the outside world a larger 
knowledge of them, they held one another 
in bondage, as they do to-day. Slaves are 
the spoils of war, or reprisals for personal 
injuries; they are used to pay debts, even 
to the extent of the debtor giving his own 
wife and children. The character of slav- 
ery varies in different sections from ex- 
treme mildness to great severity, but 
everywhere is of the lowest grade in 
morals. Labor is intermittent, and the 
slaves, like their masters, are lazy and 
thriftless. They are used, however, in 
hunting and fishing and as soldiers, espe- 
cially in the slave-stealing raids on other 
tribes. 

While tribal life is strong, family life 
scarcely exists as we regard it. There is 
no gathering around the table or the 
hearthstone; ‘‘ naked children snatch a 


1 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa,4. This feeling in the Ameri- 
can Negro to-day renders it difficult to detect crime and punish 
criminals, 


Slavery 


No Family Life 


¥ 


Woman 
Degraded and 
on=moral 


Kongo Womer 


14 The Upward Path 


handful of food and lie down to eat and 
sleep like little cubs.’? If the family 
gather together at all it is under the com- 
mand of the man to work for him as slaves. 
The woman is a hard-worked slave from 
early morning until late at night. In the 
field with her baby strapped on her back, — 
carrying heavy loads supported by ropes — 
across her forehead, cooking for her hus- 
band, then watching him eat up every 
crumb, leaving her hungry. ‘“ She is 
bought and sold, married and turned off, 
without regard’ to her preference, and 
when left a widow is inherited like other 
property by some man of her husband’s 
family, perhaps his son. . . . Her virtue 
is held of no account. She has no innocent 
childhood, motherhood is desecrated, and 
when she wraps vileness about herself as 
her habitual garment, it is encouraged,’’! — 
A recent writer ina missionary magazine — 
says, ‘‘ Kongo women are on a low plane. — 
As children we can teach them to read and _ 
write, but when grown up it seems a hope- 
less task to teach them anything. They © 
have no desire to rise higher mentally. — 
They have very little thought, practically | 


1 Parsons, Christus Liberator, 71. 


In the African Jungle 15 


no forethought. . . . But savage though 


a girl be, she gives a good deal of atten- 
tion to dress, . . . even though it be only 
beads and a few leaves, and sometimes no 
leaves. . . . She has no consciousness of 


sin, and therefore no fear of the future. 
_.. . Morally they are little better if any 
_ than the beasts of the forest. . . . The 


_ wrong is far more in being found out than 


in doing. . . . Stealing is general... . 


Lying and cheating are so usual that to lie 


is easier to many than to speak the truth. 
. Purity of life is particularly un 
known.’’ 
Polygamy was and is practised every- 
where among native, unevangelized Afri- 
eans. The only limit to the number of 
wives is the man’s inability to buy. The 
number of wives a man has increases the 
respect and honor in which he is held, 
since it indicates his wealth. Young girls 
are sold in infancy, yes, sometimes before 
their birth, to polygamous husbands who 
ean take them while yet children into the 
intolerable life of the kraal —a life too brut- 
ish to bear description. Marriage being 
a commercial or animal affair there is no 
romance connected with it. A suitor does 


Woes of 
Polygamy 


Relation of 
Mother to 
Children 


. 


} 


16 The Upward Path 


not say, ‘‘ I love this girl,’ but ** I want 
her,’’ and pays her price. A woman is al- 
ways treated as property, first by her 
parents, then by her husband. ‘“ Chas- 
tity among unmarried, or even betrothed, 
women is not at all valued or insisted 
upon. . . . The universal understanding 
of adultery among the people is that of an 
offense with reference to married women 
only—not against chastity, but prop- 
erty.’’1 

The instinct of motherhood belongs to 
all animal life. With the heathen African 
mother, generally speaking, it is of short 
duration. It is limited to the period when 
the child is dependent upon her for nour- 
ishment. ‘‘ If it falls she picks it up; if 
it cries she rocks it in her arms to make it 
hush [or slings it on her back and goes to 
work] ; it is prevented from falling into the 
fire or into the stream, but no affection or 
solicitude inspires the care of it. . . . As 
soon as it can walk it receives no further 
care. . . . When it reaches the age of 
seven or eight it is put to work, some- 
times before that time. From the tenth 


1 Dowd, The Negro Races, 125, 136. The girl is regarded as 
the property of her father and it is for that Treason she has her 
value. 


In the African Jungle 17 


year the discipline becomes more severe 
and lashes rain upon it if it commits a 
fault, or fails to do its part of the work. 
His good and bad instincts are developed 
at haphazard. . . . We have lived sev- 


eral years in their midst and have never 
geen a mother embrace a child.’’* 


The affection of fathers for their chil- 


| dren is naturally weaker and less enduring 
than that of the mothers. The love of chil- 


dren for their parents is also short-lived, 
lasting only during the time when they are 
physically dependent upon them. Old or 
sick parents are often abandoned without 


food or care. 


The West Africans have a vague belief 


in a Supreme Being which has grown dim- 


mer and dimmer with passing generations. 
This Being, however, had nothing to do 
with the practical life. He was not even 
an object of worship. Their real religion 
was (and is) spirit worship, or rather the 
fear of evil spirits. ‘‘ The Negro fancies 
the world is full of enemies, corporeal and 
spiritual, and is daily tortured with sus- 
picions and superstitious fear. Every un- 
usual place or object harbors a spirit pre- 


1Foa, Le Dahomy, 111, 113, 194. 


Little Parental or 
Filial Feeling 


Religion Chiefly 
Spirit Worship 


18 The Upward Path 


sumably hostile. He sees in every person 
who has anything to gain by his death or 
misfortune an enemy who is trying, by . 
means of charms, incantations, or witch- 
craft to work him harm.’ Thus the Negro} 
spends his lifetime in bondage. 

Fear of Evil =“ They believe the spirits of the dead 
can return and wreak vengeance upon 
their enemies, or cause the death of those 
they wish to have with them. With this 
belief wives and slaves are to-day often 
sacrificed on the grave of a chief that they 
may attend him. They believe also that 
evil spirits make their abode in dangerous 
animals and in natural objects that have 
Some unusual size or appearance, and 
make propitiatory offerings and prayers 
to them.’’ 

and With It is the office of the chief to pray to the 
tribal and local spirits for the protection 
of his people, but it is the medicine-man : 
who is the powerful personage with the 
spirits. To him the people go when ill or 
unlucky, and he performs incantations and — 
dances, while drums are beaten and women 
sing weird songs. This goes on all night, 
and sometimes for three or four nights. 


1 Parsons, A Life for Africa, 299. 


WitTcH-DoctTor 


In the African Jungle 19 


Belief in witchcraft is one of the last to 
be undermined, and its power is both ter- 
rible and relentless. 

The witch-doctor is regarded with great 
respect and unbounded fear. ‘‘ He can 
not only deal out herbs but can foretell the 
future; he can change a thing into some- 
thing else, or a man into a lower animal or 
a tree or anything; he can also assume 
such transformations himself at will.’’} 
Very frequently he is regarded as inspired, 
or possessed by a familiar spirit through 
whose aid he makes his invocations and 


Power of 
Witch=doctor 


incantations and falls into cataleptic . 


trances or ‘‘ Delphic rages.’’ 

Fetichism like witchcraft was and is a 
fearful and deep-rooted power among 
African tribes. Fear is the motive of the 
fetich worshiper, though its outward ex- 
pression in objects and rites may and does 
vary greatly in different localities and 
tribes. ‘‘ In the heathen Negro’s soul the 
fetich takes the place, and has the regard 
which an idol has with the Hindu and the 
Chinese.’’ A fetich, strictly speaking, is 
little else than a charm or amulet worn, 
about the person, or set up at some con- 


1 Menzies, History of Religion, 73. 


Fetichism 


Sacrifice 


Prayer 


What is a Fetich? 


20 The Upward Path 
: 


venient place to prevent evil or to secure 
good.! 

A pile of stones placed at the foot of al 
tree or a leaf thrown into the water may 
do away with some lurking evil; an offer- 
ing of food may appease a malignant 
spirit. A great evil expected calls for a 
blood sacrifice, usually a domestic fowl or 
animal, though in some places there are 
human sacrifices to propitiate malignant 
forces for the safety of the tribe. Sacri- 
fices are often made to appease the dis- 
pleased spirits of exacting grandfathers 
and other dead. 

Prayer does not play much part in this 
worship. Their first purpose is to attract 
the attention of the spirit by loud calls, and 
the requests are generally for good luck 
in hunting, fishing, and other pursuits. 
Generally what might be called prayer is 
the utterance of cabalistic words or sen- 
tences supposed to be a charm against bad 
luck and their chief element is a pitiful 
deprecation of evil—there is no praise, no 
love, no thanks, no confession of sin. 

A fetich is any material object conse- 
erated by the oganga, or magic doctor, 


1Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, 81. 


In the African Jungle 21 


with a variety of ceremonies and proc- 
esses, by which some spirit becomes local- 


ized in that object, and subject to the will 


of the possessor. Anything that can be 
' conveniently carried on the person may 


thus be consecrated—a stone, chip, rag, 
string, or bead. Articles most frequently 
used are snail-shells, nut-shells, and small 
horns. Its value depends, not on itself, but 
on the skill of the oganga in dealing with 
spirits. 

In preparing a fetich the oganga selects 
substances such as he deems appropriate 
to the end in view—the ashes of certain 
medicinal plants, pieces of calcined bones, 
gums, spices, and even filth, portions of 
organs of animals, especially human 
beings (eyes, brain, heart, gall-blad- 
der), particularly of ancestors or men of 
renown, or enemies. Human eyeballs, par- 
ticularly of a white person, are a great 
prize, and new-made graves have been 
rifled for them. They are compounded in 
secret, with the accompaniment of drums, 
dancing, invocations, and other perform- 
ances, and are stuffed into the hollow of 
the shell or bone, or smeared over the stick 
or stone. If it be desired to obtain power 


How Fetiches are 
Prepar 


“White Art” 
an 
“ Black Art” 


22 The Upward Path 


over some one else, there must be given to 
the oganga by the applicant, to be mixed 
in the compound, either crumbs from the 
food, or clippings of finger-nails or hair, 
or (most powerful!) even a drop of blood 
of the person over whom influence is 
sought. These represent the life or body 
of that person. ‘‘ So fearful are natives of 
power being thus obtained over them, that 
they have their hair cut only by a friend; 
and even then they carefully burn it or 
cast it into a river. If one accidentally 
cuts himself, he stamps out what blood 
has dropped on the ground, or cuts out 
from wood the part saturated with blood. 
. . . The water with which a lover’s 
body (male or female) is washed is used in 
making a philter to be mingled secretly in 
the drink of the loved one. . . . For 
every human passion or desire of every 
part of our nature, for our thousand 
necessities or wishes, a fetich can be made, 
its operation being directed to the attain- 
ment of one specified wish, and limited in 
power only by the possible existence of some 
more powerful antagonizing spirit.’’1 
There may be said to be two entirely 


1 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, 83, 85. 


In the African Jungle 23 


| different kinds of fetichism. Dr. Nassau 
uses the two terms ‘‘ white art’’ and ‘‘ black 


= cum 


art.’”? The former has been described 
above, and, as seen, its main purpose is 
to protect from evil spirits and to use them 
in preventing sickness and_ securing 
“* good Iuck.’’ ‘‘ Black art ’’ consists of 
evil practices pursued to cause sickness or 
death. The Negro justifies the former 
and practises it openly. The practitioner 
of the black art denies it and carries on his 
practices secretly. All over Africa such 
a thing as death from natural causes is not 
thought to exist; it is always the result of 
witchcraft, and the witch-doctor decides 
who is the guilty party. Any person ac- 
cused is immediately put to death with his 
whole family. ‘‘ To bewitch any one it is 
sufficient to spread medicine on his path or 


in his hut. There are also numerous other 


modes of working charms; for instance, if 
you want to cause an enemy to die, you 


make a clay figure that is supposed to rep- 


resent him. With a needle you pierce the 
figure, and your enemy the first time he 
comes in contact with a foe, will be 
speared.’’ The witch-doctor is able to 
produce sickness or death whenever he 


24 The Upward Path 


pleases, and he can produce or stop rain 
and many other things. Hence these wiz- 
ards are greatly feared. When once con- 
vinced that he has been bewitched, the vic- 
tim cannot have that belief shaken by rea- 
son or argument, and can only be assured 
of recovery when stronger countercharms 
are used or the witch has been killed. 
“goumaet ‘There is a society (not distinctly organ- 
ized) that may be called the ‘* Witchcraft 
Company.’’ It has its meetings at which 
they plot for the causing of sickness, or the 
taking of life. These meetings are secret; 
preferably in a forest or at least distant 
from a village. The hour is midnight. An 
imitation of the hoot of an owl, which is 
their sacred bird, is their signal call. They — 
profess to leave their corporeal body lying 
asleep in their huts, and claim that the 
part which joins in the meeting is their 
spiritual body, whose movements are not 
hindered by walls or other physical ob-— 
jects. ‘‘ They can pass with instant rapid- 
ity through the air, over the tree-tops. At 
their meetings they have visible, audible, 
and tangible communication with evil 
spirits. They partake of feasts; the arti- 
cle eaten being the ‘ heart-life’ of some 


In the African Jungle 25 


| human being, who, in consequence of this 
loss of his ‘ heart ’ becomes sick and will 


die, unless it be restored. The early cock- 
crowing is a warning to disperse . 


_ should the sun rise upon them before they 
_ reach their corporeal ‘ home,’ their plans 


will fail, and themselves sicken . . . or 
if Cayenne pepper should have been 
rubbed over their home body before their 


‘return, they will be unable to re-enter it, 


and will die or miserably waste away.’’? 

‘‘ In emerging from his heathenism and 
abandoning his fetichism for the accept- 
ance of Christianity, no part of the process 
is more difficult to the African Negro than 
the entire laying aside of superstitious 
practices, even after his assertion that 
they do not express his religious belief. 
From being a thief he can grow up an 
honest man; from being a liar, he can be- 
come truthful; from being indolent, he can 
become diligent; from being a polygamist, 
he can become a monogamist; from a 
status of ignorance and brutality, he can 
develop into educated courtesy. And yet 
in his secret thought, while he would not 
wear a fetich, he believes in its power, and 


1 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, 123. 


Enduring Hold of 
Fetich 


Superstition 


26 The Upward Path 


dreads its influence if possibly it should 
be directed against himself.’? 1 

Superstitions ‘<The slaves exported from Africa to 

West Indies the West Indies brought with them some 
of the seeds of African plants held by them 
as sacred to fetich in their native land. 
They established on those plantations the 
fetich-doctor, their dance, their charm, 
their lore, before they had learned English 
at all. And when the British mission- 
aries came among them with church and 
school, while many of the converts were 
sincere, there were those of the doctor 
class who, like Simon Magus, entered into 
the Church fold for the sake of gain by the 
white man’s influence, the white man’s 
Holy Spirit. Outwardly everything was 
serene and Christian. Within was work- 
ing an element of diabolism or fetichism, 
there known by the name of obeah, under 
whose leaven some of the churches were 
wrecked. And the same diabolism, known 
as voodoo worship in the Negro communi- 
ties of the southern United States, has 
emasculated the spiritual life of many pro- 
fessed Christians.’?? And alas! we must 
accept the truth that ‘‘inbred beliefs, deep- 


1 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, 101. 
2 Ibid., 125, 126. 


In the African Jungle 27 


_ ened by thousands of years of practice, are 
_ not eliminated by even a century of foreign 
teaching. Costume and fashion of dress 
are easily and voluntarily changed; not so 
_ the essence of one’s being.”’ 

This evil religion came with the Negro 
slave to America, and unmistakable traces 
_ of it can be found to-day among the ignor- 
ant masses. ‘‘ To overcome the inertia of 
ages, engendered in much of the continent 
[of Africa] by favoring soil and climate, 
_and to displace the thirst for blood and for 
gold with a desire for peace and industry, 
_ requires rare patience and ability of a high 
order. How much greater is the demand 
“made upon the spiritual nature, when one 
“must create ideas of holiness and virtue by 
a stainless life before there can be any de- 
sire for better living!’’! This is the task 
that devolves upon those who seek to 
evangelize the African savage, and that 
was laid upon those who sought to evan- 
gelize that same savage when transplanted 
to America. 

The Africa of the eighteenth century is 
the Africa of to-day, except where Chris- 
tianity has lifted up the Christ at a ter- 


1 Beach, Geography and Atlas of Protestant Missions, 458. 


The Necro 
Brought His 
Religion to 
America 


African only 
Uplitted by 
Christianity 


28 The Upward Path 


rible cost of life and a vast expenditure of 

money. It is a tremendous task that has 

had its chief hindrance in the white man’s 

rum and greed of gold which has further 

besotted the race. The fierce cannibal is not 

bettered when he is made a drunken idiot. 

The missionary has found among the 
poor, ignorant savages some noble re-— 
sponses to the gospel’s call. The Sun of — 
Righteousness is shining in many places 

in the Dark Continent, and in the kingdom . 
of God many will rise up and bless Moffat, — 
Livingstone, Taylor, and many others. . 
The best work of these has not been in © 
making Caucasian Christians of them, but — 
noble Christian Negroes, in whom the 
highest of which they were capable has © 
wonderfully responded to the Christ, and 
by His help and grace triumphed over the 
lowest of which human life was capable. 


ee 


SUGGESTIONS FOR USING THE QUESTIONS 


Tt is a mistake to assume that the questions at the 
end of the chapters can be used by any leader, because . 
every list of questions must keep in mind the local con- — 
ditions, and the ability of the class. These questions — 
are not exhaustive, only suggestive, and should be used 
with discretion by every one leading the course of study. 


tl atthe 


Se 


In the African Jungle 29 


The leader can easily add memory questions and others 
that will bear fruitful discussion, adapting all to the 
aim of each session. Questions marked * should prove 
helpful in more extended discussion. 


SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER I 


Aim: To REaLizE WHAT TO EXPECT OF THE NEGRO IN 
View or His ForMER ENVIRONMENT 


1.* What was the original state of the whole hu- 
man race and the law of its evolution? 

2.* Is the Negro an exception to the rule? 

3. Why is it necessary in this study to consider the 
origin of the Negro? 

4. What section of Africa did the Negro enter? 

5. Name some of the main subdivisions of the 
Negro race. 

6. Is there any uniformity of type? 

7. From what section of Africa was the Negro 
brought to America? 

8. Enumerate some of the fundamental race traits. 

9.* What conditions of environment have deyvel- 
oped these traits? 

10. Name some of the most striking weaknesses in 
the government of the Africans. 

11. How are slaves obtained and treated? 

12. How does the African make his living? 

13. Which members of the family do most of the 
work? 

14. What would you miss most in an African 
family? 

15. Name at least three objections to being the 
wife ef an African. 

16. Why do you suppose mothers early lose con- 
trel of their children? 


30 The Upward Path 


17.* Compare the Christian God with that of ual 
African. i 

18.* What is the difference between our belief in 
the Holy Spirit and the belief of the African 
in spirits? 

19. What is fetichism? 

20. Who has the power to make fetiches? ; 

21. What is the difference between ‘‘ black art ’ > i 
and ‘‘ white art ’’? i 

22. Enumerate some of the acknowledged powers , 
of a witch-doctor. 4 

23.* Are religious beliefs easy or difficult to change, — : 
and why? ; 

24,* What conditions have made missionary work 
difficult among the Negroes? 

, 


% 


REFERENCES FOR FuRTHER StuDy.—CHAPTER I? 


I. Social Life. 
Dowd: The Negro Races, Part II, Ch. VIII. 
Nassau: Fetichism in West Africa, I. , 
Naylor: Daybreak in the Dark Continent, IT. 4 
Parsons: Christus Liberator, III, V. , 
Stone: In Afric’s Forest and Jungle, ITI, X14 
Williams: History of the Negro Race, III, IV. 
II. Religious Life. 
Dowd: The Negro Races, Part II, XXIII, Y 
XXIV. ‘ 
Nassau: Fetichism in West Africa, II, III, 
PV), eX Xa, XV. 


Pine Christus Liberator, ITI, IV. 
Stone: In Afric’s Forest ann Jungle, X, XXIV. 


1 These references are largely confined to the sections of Africa 
from which the American Negro came. 


i», ee 


More than any other part of Africa, the West Coast 
was or has been the slaver’s hunting-ground. Here was 
the ‘‘ Slave Coast ’’ of the geographers, and among the 
Yoruba west of the Niger there was or has been more 


kidnaping than in any other quarter. 


—Ellen C. Parsons 


The slave had to work, but his work was conducted 
upon the right plan—he was not overworked, but was re- | 
quired to do a reasonable amount, without injury to | 
himself physically, or to his master financially.... We 
had shoemakers, mechanics, blacksmiths, farmers, barbers, — 


and butlers, each happy in his occupation. The old Ne- 


gro men made baskets, chair bottoms, rugs, and the like _ 
to sell, as well as to supply the plantation; the old 


darkies received the proceeds of the articles sold. The 
field-hands who cultivated the fleecy staple of their mas- 


ters’ estates were very important factors in plantation | 


life, 
John Ambrose Price 


ME cal 


‘American slavery was a great curse to both races, 


and I would be the last to apologize for it; but in the 


presence of God, I believe that slavery laid the founda- _ 
tion for the solution of the problem that is now before | 


us in the South. During slavery the Negro was taught | 


every trade, every industry, that constitutes the founda- — 


tion for making a living. 
—Booker T. Washington 


Greer ee we 


IT 
AMERICAN SLAVERY 


HE history of the rest of mankind of- 


Exodus of 
Israelites 


fers no parallel to the story of the Voluntary 


transportation of the Negroes from the 
African wilds to the shores of the Ameri- 


-ecancontinent. The exodus of the Israelites 
from Egypt was a voluntary colonization 
_ scheme organized and directed, as they be- 
| lieved, by Jehovah, whereby they hoped to 
escape from cruel bondage to liberty and 
_ prosperity; and the distance to be traveled 


Was comparatively short. Later their 


_Babylonish captivity was an incident of 


war that did not destroy their national life, 
and they later returned to their country. 


The Negro, contrary to his will, without X 


knowledge of his destination and with no 


hope for the future, was forcibly carried 
- thousands of miles across an unknown sea 


. 
| 
: 


to an unknown fate in an unknown land. 
Thus uptorn as a weed from his native 


soil and all its surroundings and his past 


. 
| 


obliterated, difficult indeed would it have 


Negro Forcibly 
xported 


34 The Upward Path 


been for him to believe that in the distant 
future his new home and its bondage was 
to work out for him a higher destiny. Seek 
to evade it as we may, we cannot escape 
the conviction that the Almighty’s hand of 


, love overshadowed the poor, unconscious 


Slavery the 
First Step 


Civilized 
Nations Extended 
Slavery 


victim and made the ‘‘ wrath of man ’’ to 
praise him in the future good of the 
Negro. Joseph said to his brethren who 
had sold him into slavery—‘‘ Ye meant 
evil against me; but God meant it for good, 
to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save 
much people alive.’’+ 

As the upward movement of the race 
proceeds, it becomes more and more eyvi- 
dent that American slavery with its dis- 


‘cipline and training was the first great 


step in the evolution of the African savage 
into a citizen of civilization. With this 
preview of its resultant purpose, the stu- 
dent takes a deeper interest in noting the 
beginning, the conditions that existed, and 
the close of the period of Negro bondage 
in the United States. 

While slavery existed in all African 
tribes throughout the continent as far as 
known, it was left to the civilized nations— 


1Gen. 1. 20. 


American Slavery 35 


Portugal, Spain, England, Denmark, and 
France—to extend the traffic by exporting 
slaves to other lands. This slave-trade be- 
gan in the fifteenth century, and continued 
for nearly four centuries. To Protestant 
Christian England belongs the largest 
share of the infamy involved, for with her 
usual impelling force she soon outstripped 
all competitors. The traffic was legalized 
in 1562, and charters were granted to trad- 
ing companies. She supplied her own col- 
onies with slaves, and her merchants se- 
eured the monopoly of the Spanish colonial 
slave-trade. The United States followed 
the example set by the mother country and 
was not behind her in energy. 

The horrors of the slave-trade have been 
often described; they could not be exag- 
gerated. There were continual scenes of 
raid, burning villages, fettered slaves, 
eruel beatings, and weary marches. The 
weak often perished on the way to the 
slave-ships which were waiting at the 
coast. Then followed the horrors of the 
‘‘ middle passage,’’ when men, women, and 
children were shackled and packed to- 
gether in the ship’s hold in suffocating 
masses to die or to live, as the chance might 


Horrors of 
Slave-trade 


Opposition to 
Slave-trade 


Date of First 
Slaves in the 
United States 


36 _ The Upward Path 


be. Imagination refuses to picture the 
agony the unfortunate captives must have 
endured during those long weeks, ere they 
were unloaded in a strange land, where 
they were to begin an entirely new exist- 
ence. 

The conscience of Christendom was not 
sleeping and her voice was not silent. Pitt 
and Fox fought against the slave-trade in 
England, and the opposition of some of 
the American colonies was great. As early 
as 1760, ‘‘ an act of total prohibition in 
South Carolina was disallowed by Great 
Britain.’’ In 1772, Virginia appealed to 
the King against ‘‘ the pernicious com- 
merce.’’ Thomas Jefferson put into his 
original draft of the Constitution a clause 
indicting George III for maintaining this 
slave-trade as a ‘‘ piratical warfare.’’ 
The clause was stricken out by Congress. 
Legislation, limiting and prohibitive, was 
passed again and again by the original 
thirteen States. Massachusetts passed 
such a law as early as 1641, at the time 
when her own Boston merchants were the 
largest importers. 

Statements differ as i the date of the 
landing of the first African slaves in what 


American Slavery 37 


|is now the United States. One is that a 
| Spanish ship brought the first load as early 
jas 1526. Another is that they were 
|brought by the Dutch, twenty in number, 
jin 1619, and were landed at Jamestown, 
| Virginia. This last date seems to have the 
|best authority. 

In 1807 laws to abolish the slave-trade 
were passed in both England and the 
|United States and these went into effect 
ithe next year. At that time, after one 
jhundred and eighty-eight years of the 
jtrade, over 1,000,000 Negroes were in the 
jUnited States. In 1860, fifty-three years 
later, that number had increased, by birth 
jand continued importation, to 4,441,830. It 
jhas been claimed, and with a large degree 
of probability, that the law was often 
evaded and that slaves were smuggled into 
the country in large numbers at first, but 
that the numbers gradually decreased as 
the danger and frequent loss rendered the 
trade unprofitable. 

When first introduced into this country 
the Negroes were scattered in varying 
numbers throughout the colonies, or the 
States, as they became later. The condi- 
sions of climate and not public opinion 


Abolition of 
Slave=trade 


Segregation in 
the South 


Wretched 
Savages Meeting 
Civilization 


3 The Upward Path 


influenced their distribution, and, finally, 
brought about their almost entire segrega- 
tion in the South. The Northern slave- 
holders, finding them unprofitable in cold 
latitudes, did not pass emancipation laws 
until nearly all had been sold into the 
Southern States, where the more genial 
climate made their labor more productive. 
Thus the South became charged with the 
life and destiny of the American Negro— 
a responsibility greater than the profit to 
be gained and one that was to affect its 
own destiny, complicate its own life so- 
cially, industrially, and politically, and 
leave it involved in a gigantic problem 
that must be worked out by the two races 
as they live side by side and work together 
with God. 

The pitiable condition of the Negroes 
when they were landed on our shores car 
hardly be described, yet the imagination 
has many solid facts on which it may paint 
a picture. The rapid survey given of the 
condition of the African in his native wilds 
showed his state to be that of a degraded 
savage. To this must now be added the 
horrible results of his long voyage. Physi 
cally he was often suffering from diseas¢ 


American Slavery 39 


and cruel wounds, sometimes crippled, 
maimed, or mutilated. Mentally he was 
absolutely ignorant of the demands of ciy- 
ilization, its dress and food, its customs, 
its labor, and its language. Morally he was 
generally vicious in habits, and displayed 
only the basest standard of life. Spirit- 
ually it was inevitable that he would be the 
fearful slave of belief in evil spirits, with 
a religion that was a foul compound of 
animalism and witchcraft. Yet these poor, 
wretched savages were human beings, with 
bs csibilities of suffering and sorrow, love, 
aappiness, and righteousness that God 
alone knew at that time, but which the 
hite people were to learn. 

| There was no thought of preserving fam- 
ly ties—these were destroyed when the 
ictims were sold in Africa. Often utter 
strangers to each other, perhaps of war- 
ing tribes, and speaking different dia- 
ects, they were bartered like a herd of ani- 
nals to white American masters for whom 
hey naturally felt hatred as well as fear. 
hese sentiments constantly threatened to 
reak out into open mutiny, and they often 
id so; therefore close, often severe, con- 
rol was resorted to in order to restrain 


Restraint 
Necessary for 
Protection 


New Experiences 


Civilizing a 


A National Sin 


40 The Upward Path 


them and insure the protection of the 
owners. 

They were compelled to labor with un- 
known tools by commands given in an un- 
known tongue; to wear irksome clothing, 
to eat unfamiliar food; to submit to un- 
known and, to them, unreasonable re- 
straints in habits and morals. Civilization 
had its price for the savage African, as 
it has for all peoples. 

On the other hand, we can hardly con- 
ceive of the magnitude of the task which 
devolved upon the owners of these savages 
in civilizing, training, and evangelizing 
them. Such a task might well fill ar 
angel’s hands. And yet in a large degree 
considering the circumstances, it was ac 
complished, as we must believe, when wé 
compare these imported Africans with 
their descendants at the time of their eman 
cipation. 

It is not necessary here to enter upor 
an arraignment of or defense of slavery 
If it was a sin it was a national sin, anc 
the nation as a whole is responsible for it 
And well may the people of all section: 
thank God that the institution of Negri 
slavery no longer exists in our country. — 


4 


American Slavery 4] 


Justice demands, however, that a true 


‘slavery be given, to exonerate a great and 
noble people from the accumulated misrep- 
Tesentations of generations—a people who, 
while seeking to fulfil rightly their in- 
herited task, bore a burden that none but 
themselves understood, not the least of 
which was the misunderstanding of those 
who had helped to lay that burden upon 
them. Surely the time has come when all 
are willing to hear something of the true 
story of American slavery. 

_ Justice to the Negroes also demands 
that it be shown that they were capable of 
taking advantage of the restraints of civil- 
ization, the industrial training and the g0sS- 
pel opportunities of slavery, to rise to a 
higher plane than that of their African an- 
estors. 

The limited extent of slave ownership 
s often a matter of surprise to those who 
earn the facts for the first time. Pro- 
essor G. W. Dyer in his valuable work, 
emocracy in the South Before the Civil 
ar, presents the following statistics: 
From the census of 1860 we learn that 
he total white population in the Southern 


narration of the conditions of American ing 


A Burden of 
Misunderstand= 


Negro Capable 
of Progress 


Extent of 
Ownership 


Slave Labor 
Expensive 


42 The Upward Path 


States was 8,179,356; while the number of 
slaveholders in all these States was only 
383,637 and the total number of slaves was 
3,948,713, the average number of slaves to 
each owner was 10. Only about one-fourth 
of the Southern men owned any slaves at 
all, and one-fifth of that one-fourth owned 
only one slave; and more than half of all 
the slaveholders owned less than five. 
There were about 2,300 men that owned 
more than 100, and only 14 that owned 
more than 500. | 
Professor Dyer says further: ‘‘ Slave 
labor was just as expensive in the South 
before the war as free labor would have 
been under similar economic conditions. 
. . The owners had to look after every 
interest of the slave—his food, clothing, 
shelter, health, his habits and his disci- 
pline—and not for the working slave only, 
but for those incapacitated for work by 
sickness, old age, and infancy, and this in 
hard times as well as flush, for the un- 
worthy and for the worthy... . The 
fact that hundreds of thousands of free 
white men were employed in the South be- 
fore 1860 and received as high wages 
as farm-hands in the North shows that 


‘ 
: 


American Slavery 43 


there was no special advantage in slave 
abor.’’? 

_ The selling of slaves, especially in a way 
0 sunder members of families, was not so 
‘requent as is sometimes imagined. In 
(860 there were thousands of slaves who 
d been owned for generation after gen- 
ation by the same family. There were 
so many thousands who had been emanci- 
ated by their masters. Before the Civil 
ar the free Negro population in the 
outh was estimated at over a quarter of 
million. While by far the larger number 
f these were idle and shiftless, many were 
onest and industrious artisans who plied 
eir trades among both white and black 
ople. Some of this better class owned 
aluable property, and in a few instances 
hey were not only landowners but slave- 
wners. 

There were a large number of slaves 
ho served a regular apprenticeship at 
some trades and became skilled workmen. 
ome of these rendered valuable service on 
he plantations, others were hired out by 
eir masters to contractors, and still 
thers were allowed to ‘‘ hire their own 


1 Dyer, Democracy in the South Before the Civil War, 41-44. 


Thousands of 
Free Negroes 


Principal 
Occupations 


44 The Upward Path 


time ’? and make monthly or annual se 
tlement with their masters. The Negt 
artisan worked side by side most amicabl 
with the white man following the sam 
trade. 
pisticulture and = ' The vast majority of the slaves were en 
ployed in agriculture and domestic servic 
There was a marked difference betwee 
those known as ‘‘ farm-hands ”? and th 
‘“ house servants.’? The position of th 
latter being regarded as higher and th 
work lighter, it was eagerly desired ani 
sought. This difference was more marke 
on large plantations in the far South thai 
on the small farms in the Middle States 
Plantation Life The plantation Negroes were generalh 
the latest arrivals from Africa and thos 
of the lowest tribal type. These were be 
ing constantly reénforced by the wors 
specimens from other sections. Bein, 
““ sold down South ’’ was frequently th 
punishment for offenses that now sent 
them to the penitentiary. The threat of i 
often proved an efficacious restraint apg 
bad propensities. 
Sometinn’ cen; On the large sugar, rice, and cotton ce 
tations where they dwelt in large number: 
and came very little into contact with the 


a 


American Slavery 45 


white race, the gain for the Negroes for 
i long time was only in settled habits of 
industry and in learning obedience to law. 
+ seemed impossible for even this to be 
iecomplished without force, and, since the 
rdinary plantation overseer was not al- 
ays what he ought to have been any more 
han industrial subordinates or city police 
ire to-day, brutal force was undoubtedly 
ften used rather than Christlike patience 
nd instruction in righteousness. This 
as more frequently the case where plan- 
lations suffered from the evils of ‘‘ absen- 
eeism,’’ but many times the returning 
wher indignantly corrected abuses and 
BE tarzed the overseer. In the hands of 
icked men the power of the owner was 
bused, as power always has been and al- 
Ways will be by the unrighteous the world 
‘yer. It should not, however, be forgotten 
hat many of the punishments inflicted by 
a owner upon slaves were for such of- 
fenses as in this day send both white and 
slack culprits to the jails and peniten- 
aries. The effect upon the character of 
he offender and in the prevention of crime 
was far more satisfactory, especially if 
the criminal was young. 


An Honorable 
Responsibility 


Housing of 
Negroes 


46 The Upward Path 


The large majority of Southern slave. 
holders felt an honorable responsibility for 
the care and protection of their slaves, 
aside from pecuniary interest, even though 
such care should lessen their financial 
profits. Beyond this, they felt an indul- 
gent compassion, that deepened into love 
for the helpless folk dependent upon them. 
They looked at them en masse and saw ra- 
cial inferiority in mind, body, and morality, 
and did not expect from them what they 
did from white people. Any one going 
upon a plantation to-day where Negroes 
work in large numbers, either in America 
or elsewhere, will receive the same impres- 
sion without, possibly, the same indulgent 
feeling. ? 

The plantation Negroes lived in loca- 
tions known as ‘‘ the quarters,’’ usually, 
each family in a house of one or two rooms, 
The character of these houses as to ap- 
pearance and comfort varied with th 
financial ability or humanity of the owner. 
Some slave-owners were poor or involved 
in debt, and lived poorly themselves, while 
others, alas! lacked the Christly love that 
gives attention to the conditions of the un- 
fortunate. Generally speaking, the houses 


| 


a. 


— — ~ = DON 
Copyright, Underwood and Underwood 
CaBINS, ‘‘ THE HeRMITAGE,’’ SAVANNAH, GEORGIA 


a 


j 
| American Slavery 47 
for the slaves would bear comparison with 
the homes of the peasant class in many 
jJands, and were far less crowded and more 
sanitary than the houses occupied by the 
‘lower class of laborers, white or black, in 
some of our cities to-day. 
The Negroes of the South corresponded 
to the poor people of other countries, and 
poverty anywhere means the lack of lux- 
-ury and, sometimes, of the necessities of 
‘life; yet these last the Southern slave 
never lacked. To this statement there are 
‘a thousand witnesses to one against it. 
‘The food and clothing given them were good 
and sufficient for the climate—very plain, 
of course, but satisfying and clean. Where 
| the climate required a fire there was al- 
Ways an ample supply of fuel, and there 
_Mever was any rent to pay, or bills for 
‘physician and drugs. The old, the young, 
and the sick were even more the recipients 
of such provision than the laborer, from 
whose shoulders the burden of caring for 
these was lifted. 
' The hours of work, as is usual for farm- 
hands, were regulated by the length of the 
season’s day, the weather, and the physi- 
eal condition of the individual. No work 


/ 


Usually Well 
Cared for by 
wners 


Labor 
Regulations 


Holidays and 
Sundays 


48 The Upward Path 


was required of the old or feeble beyond 
what they were capable of rendering. The 
expectant mother and the nursing mother 
were guarded from overwork. On some 
plantations mothers were given no work 
that took them away from their little chi 
dren, on others the children were placed in 
the care of a woman called a ‘‘ tender, | 
who kept them in what we now call a day. 
nursery or créche. There was no thought 
of child labor as it is now understood; gen- 
erally only a few trivial tasks were giver | 
children before they were ten or twelve 
years old, and later on their work was reg- 
ulated to suit their years and strength, 
They were not confined as our white chil- 
dren are to-day in mills bai factories and 
sweat-shops. ! 

Saturday afternoons, Christmas week, 
and the Fourth of July were by almost. 
universal custom regarded as holidays, 
and no work was required except feeding : 
the stock. These holidays were spent by 
the thrifty in the truck gardens usually 
allowed them, or on any kind of job work 
by which they could make money for them : 
selves, such as the making of baskets, 
brooms, shuck mats, and similar articles; 


American Slavery 49 


‘while the fun-loving spent them in hunt- 
ing, fishing, dancing, and play. Sunday 
-was a day of rest, wherein they loafed or 
yslept, except during the hours of worship. 
‘Unless the master was actively opposed 
to Christianity, which was rare, regular 
religious services were conducted in a 
house he had built for the purpose, or in 
a barn or gin house cleaned for the occa- 
sion, the preacher being either a white 
*“ missionary ’’ or one of their own race— 
sometimes the master or mistress. 

The marriage relation was encouraged 
by owners and accounted honorable among 
themselves, though the disregard of it was 
frequent, as is the case with the ignorant 
class everywhere. When compared with 
the unrestrained licentiousness of their 
‘savage past, this was slight indeed. 

_ To sell liquor to a slave was illegal and 
‘subjected the seller to punishment; hence 
there was little drunkenness among them, 
and there was little occasion or opportu- 
nity for gambling on the plantation. The 
‘restraints of slavery saved them from 
these vices that to-day are doing much to 
destroy them. 

Negroes were not allowed to leave the 


Marriage 


Little 
Drunkenness and 
Gambling 


50 The Upward Path 


Restricticferics Plantation after nightfall without a writ 
ten permit from the owner. If one was 
found outside without this ‘‘ pass,’’ he was 
subject to arrest by the rural police calle +] 
“* patrols,’’ or, as the Negroes pronounced 
it, ‘‘ patter-rollers.’’? This restraint pre 
vented much roguery and was especially 
helpful in keeping young men from night 
dissipation, and it left them in better con 
dition for the morrow’s work. Within the 
bounds of the plantation there was little 
or no restraint placed on their frolies and 
fun-making. On such occasions their joy - 
ous temperament and natural gayety found 
such expression as made it hard to believe 
that they were miserable and unhappy. 
Marriage off the plantation was not en 
couraged. In some cases it was forbidden. 
The custom in such marriages was to allow 
the husband, if the distance was not great, 
to go every night to the home of the wife; 
if distant, to go Saturday night and remain 
till Monday morning. The children of 
such marriages belonged to the owner of 
the wife. 

but Vaiusvieg. += ‘There were no schools for the Negroes, 
‘reining and with but few exceptions the plantation ; 
Negroes were absolutely illiterate, yet 


American Slavery 51 


there was a certain amount of education 
and mental development that came with 
training in diversified industries, and with 
the learning of a new language by those 
who were brought to this country as 
adults. There was also much verbal teach- 
ing among them in the way of songs, reci- 
tations, and story-telling. A considerable 
amount of valuable information was in- 
parted by their ‘‘ wise ones,’’ gained by 
close observations of nature in its various 
forms, to which they added shrewd ‘‘say- 
ings ’’ and wise proverbs full of common 
sense. 

The ‘‘ house servants ’’ formed a class 
quite distinct and socially above the field- 
hand, and even among them there were de- 
grees, something after this fashion: the 
children’s nurse, ‘‘ Mammy,’’ the butler, 
the carriage driver, the gentleman’s body- 
servant, the ‘‘ lady’s-maid,’’ the cook, the 
gardener. All of these held sway in cer- 
tain realms of their own, the dignity of 
which they tried to impress on others, 
while they enjoyed its advantages and per- 
quisites. Next to these was the ‘‘ head 
man’’ (known only in fiction as the 
*‘ driver ’’) of the farm-hands. He was 


Domestic 
Servants 


House Servants 


Mammy and 
Nursling 


52 The Upward Path 


most frequently a man of fine character 
as well as of physical prowess, and re- 
spected alike by white and black. f 

The house servants were generally 
chosen from among their fellows because | 
of their intelligence and good appearance, 
or because their parents had been in the 
house. Their close association—for it was 
very close, intimate, and affectionate— 
with the white family and their guests 
gained for them a certain sort of culture 
of mind, morals, and manners totally un- 
known to the mass of their people. Many 
of them read well. They were loyal to the 
last degree to the white family and its 
traditions, identifying themselves with it 
to the extent of feeling themselves a part 
of it in joy or sorrow, and having a sense 
of ownership in all that belonged to it. 
They were in turn trusted and loved by 
their white people, and thus was formed a 
bond so strong that not even the great war 
was able to sunder it. 

Those who did not know personally the 
relation between the black ‘‘ Mammy ’’ 
and her nurslings can never understand 
it. The heart grows tender, the eyes 
moist, in recalling the dear black face that 


American Slavery 53 


‘so often bent over the writer of these 
pages and the sheltering arms that held 
her in sleep or sickness, the sympathetic 
consoler in childish troubles and the in- 
structor in manners, all summed up in 
‘‘Mammy,’’ otherwise ‘‘ Aunt Gilly,’’ 
‘‘ faithful until death.’? She was a type 
of hundreds of others, and all through the 
South there are white men and women who 
have the same tender memories of their 
loving nurses. The same feeling in a les- 
ser degree extended to many ‘‘ uncles ”’ 
and ‘‘ aunts ’’ and playfellows. 

Many a Southern home was a better 
model for an industrial school than some 
that have been established of late years 
for white and black girls. The training 
was individual, thorough, practical, and 
the result the finest domestic service that 
ever existed. The men and women who 
owned the Negroes were not luxurious 
idlers, as they have often been represented. 
The Southern mistress, besides being a no- 
table housekeeper and a devoted mother of 
many children, was often a combination of 
*‘a head resident in a settlement,’’ a 
‘* health officer,’’ a ‘‘ superintendent of 
nurses,’’a‘‘ director of industries,’’a‘‘ con- 


Home a 
Training School 


Witch=doctors 
Imported 


54 The Upward Path 
fidential adviser and umpire’? of fam- 
ily and neighbor difficulties, with many ; 
minor duties. She loked after the sanitary — 
condition of the ‘‘ cabin ”’ and the personal — 
habits of its occupants, ‘and required clean- — 
liness. She visited the sick constantly, and ~ 
often administered the medicine and pre- 
pared the food with her own hands. She- 
looked after the babies, and instructed the . 
mothers in their care. She comforted the | 
sorrowing, rejoiced with the happy, and, if © 
she herself were a Christian, pointed the 
dying to Christ. She or her daughters 
were often the Sunday-school teachers of 
the children, and read the Bible to the ee 
and sick in their cabins. 

Imported along with others of their : 
tribe came the ‘‘ witch-doctors,’’ or medi- 
cine-men, and these by their knowledge of 
the secret things of their profession and by 
the desire to preserve their power over the 
people (with the gains of it) did more than 
anything else to hinder the evangelization 
of the Negroes. Fear of the malevolent 
use of the witch-power was the largest 
cause of their influence over the timid; and 
with the wicked there was a desire to se- 


cure their help in furthering their own evil 


American Slavery 55 


purposes. This power was possessed as 
often by women as men, and was a terrible 
weapon when directed by jealousy, envy, 
and anger, and its results were manifested 
in the failing health and sometimes in the 
death of its victims. The explanation 
may be found in some degree in mental 
suggestion and nervous terror, but also, 
though in possibly a lesser degree, in the 
use of poison, the secret of which was 
brought from Africa. This practice of the 
““ black art ’’ of fetichism was hidden with 
cunning wisdom from the whites, espe- 
cially from the master, except in sad cases 


of sickness when the sufferer would be pro-— 


nounced conjured. For these medical 
treatment was of little avail. 

‘‘ Tt was a secret religion, that lurked 
thinly covered in slavery days, and that 
lurks to-day beneath the Negro’s Christian 
profession as a white art, and among non- 
professors as a black art; a memory of the 
revenges of his African ancestors; a secret 
fraternity among slaves of far distant 
plantations, with words and signs—the 
lifting of a finger, the twitch of an eyelid— 
that telegraphed from house to house with 
amazing rapidity (as to-day in Africa) 


Fetichism 


Still Retain 
Some Beliefs 


Despite 
Difficulties 
Thousands 

Transformed 


56 The Upward Path 


current news in old slave days and during 
the Civil War; suspected but never under- 
stood by the white master; which, as a 
superstition, has spread among our igno- 


rant white masses as the * Hoodoo.’ Vudu, ~ 
or QOdoism, is simply African fetich-— 


ism transplanted to American soil.’’} 


‘‘Tt is almost impossible for persons — 


who have been brought up under this sys- 
tem ever to divest themselves fully of its 


influence. It has been retained among the — 


blacks of this country, though in a less 
open form, even to the present day, and 
probably will never be fully abandoned un- 
til they have made much higher attain- 
ments in Christian education and civiliza- 
tion.”?:- 

A statement of these conditions shows 
the great difficulty that was encountered 
in teaching the gospel of purity and truth 
to a people many of whom were born sav- 
ages, or were but one generation removed 
from savagery. Yet faithful men and 


women of God wrought a great work for — 
their Lord in bringing thousands, yes, hun- 
dreds of thousands, of these poor heathen — 


and semi-heathen to know and to love the 
1 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, 274, 275. 
2 Wilson, Western Africa. 


ten niet 


| 
| 
1 


i] 
| 
| 
! 


American Slavery af 


Christ. There have been many ‘‘ simple 
annals of the poor ’’ Christian Negroes 
preserved that thrill the heart to gladness 
in Jesus, for that He hath redeemed unto 
‘Himself many peoples of many nations— 
stories of humble faith and unswerving de- 
-votion to God, of patient unselfishness 


toward others, of joy in the Lord, and of 


power in intercessory prayer for the 
sinner. 


In considering the Christianization of 


! the Africans who dwelt in this country as 
slaves, conditions should be frankly con- 
sidered in order to understand not only 


the missionary efforts of the Churches and 


Christian workers, but also the difficulties 
and, at times, the almost insurmountable 
hindrances that attended those efforts and 


lessened their results. 

1. The public opinion of an age that per- 
mitted the slave-trade was not favorable 
to a Christlike attitude toward the slave, 
or a recognition of his spiritual nature and 
its needs. 

2. The majority of the colonists came to 
America to improve their fortunes, and 
the purchase of slaves was simply a com- 
mercial transaction. Many colonists were 


Some 
Considerations 


Public Opinion 
pposed 


Majority of 
Colonists Not 
Interested in 
Religion 


Uprisings 
Necessitated 
Precautions 


Vicious Nature 
Made Missionary 
Effort Difficult 


58 The Upward Path 


not Christians themselves, and, as a matter 
of course, cared nothing for the salvation 
of others, either white or black. This class 
of men in that day, as in this, easily per- 
suaded themselves into thinking that all 
religion was either superstition or hypoc- 
risy, and that the Negroes were better off 
without it. The worst of them exercised 
their power in refusing religious oppor- 
tunities to their slaves. ' 

3. Certain uprismgs of dissatisfied 
slaves in different parts of the country 
made it necessary, in the minds of some, 
to prevent all large gatherings among 
them with the possibilities which they of- 
fered of fomenting and planning disturb- 
ances; and, as religious gatherings were 
sometimes used for this purpose, they 
were also at times disallowed, and in 
some places laws were passed forbidding 
them as well as others. This was espe- 
cially true during the period immediately 
following the early abolition movement 
and the intolerance which accompanied it. 

4, The low, vicious nature of the Afri- 
cans made then, as now, any missionary 
effort among them difficult and slow. 
They were imbued with the basest super- 


American Slavery 59 


stitions and clung to their fetich with un- 
reasoning fear. Their spiritual faculties 
were so dormant that they often seemed 
incapable of spiritual perception of any 
kind. Their physical habits and immoral 
practices were so filthy and debasing that 
their moral degeneracy opposed bitterly 
the doctrines of purity and truth, and even 
when Christianity was accepted many ad- 
Gerents would not regard its ethics. 


who did not know enough English to un- 
derstand the words of the preacher, and 
they were so stupid that they could never 
learn it, and their own language possessed 
no spiritual terms that would properly 
convey to them the gospel of love and pu- 
tity. Over this class of native Africans 
and their children the witch-doctor had as 
much fearful power as in the wilds of 
Africa. 


the unsettled conditions which followed it 
and which led to the Western movement, 
were unfavorable to all religious life. 


! 


7. The infidel propaganda of Voltaire, Infidel 


_ 6. On the plantations there were many Language a 


6. The turbulent state of mind preceding Turbulent 
and during the Revolutionary War, and_ Untavorable 


opaganda an 


Rousseau, and Paine that swept through !mpediment 


God Fulfilling 
His Promise 


60 The Upward Path 


Christendom like a poison virus creel 
away many hearts from Christ and right- 
eousness. Its influence was felt from New 
England to the Carolinas, in the eastern 
cities and the wildernesses of the West. 

Slave-owners infected by it bitterly re- 
sented or ridiculed the efforts of preachers 
or even of their own Christian wives to 
teach the Negroes belief in God. The un- 
shaken faith and Christian courage of 
American women during that time of apos- 
tasy was the leaven that saved this country 
for Christ. Later, great revivals swept 
over the country and the quickening of the 
Holy Spirit was felt by both white and 
black—master and slave often being con- 
verted at the same ‘‘ mourner’s bench.’” 
One of the important results of these re- 
vivals was the increased sense of responsi- 
bility felt by masters for the religious in- 
struction of their Negroes. 

In and through all these difficulties and 
adverse influences the Church of God and 
His faithful children never ceased their ef- 
forts to save the poor African slaves. And 
God was fulfilling His promise that His 
Word should not return unto Him void. 
The seed of the Word was falling upon 


American Slavery 61 


‘hearts prepared by the Spirit to receive it, 
and was bearing fruit to the glory of God 
in the conversion and daily life of more 
and yet more of the slaves. The history 
of this missionary movement is as inter- 
esting as any that has been written of 
Africa, and the results are more wonder- 
fee.” 


(1860), the census reports the Negro pop- 
ulation of the South as 4,097,111. In the 
Baptist and Methodist Churches alone 
607,786 Negroes were enrolled as baptized 
members, and instructed adherents were 
estimated at 1,823,328. Add to this the 
membership and adherents of the Presby- 
ae Protestant Episcopal, Moravian, 
and Negro Baptist Churches, of which no 
records can be obtained, and there must 
have been over 2,000,000 Negroes in the 
Southern States who were either profess- 
ing Christians or under direct Protestant 
Christian influence and instruction—nearly 
one-half of their whole number. Of the 


1The details of this great work of the saving of a people will 
\be told elsewhere in this volume, as the story of the evolution of 
\the race proceeds and the dark meaning of its different stages un 
\folds and grows clearer. Let it suffice here to give the result of 
| 
(the unquenchable love, unfailing patience, generous giving, and 
unflagging zeal of years of this heroic effort. 


At the beginning of the Civil War Church 


Membership in 
South 


Membershir in 
North 


62 The Upward Path 


other half there were hundreds, possibly 
thousands, of Roman Catholics, and there 
must also have been large numbers to 
whom the gospel had been preached and 
who refused to receive it. ; 
In the North, in 1860, there was a Negro 
population of 344,719, of whom we can 
claim that an equal proportion were Chris 
tians and under Christian instruction. 
Does the history of missions present an 
parallel to this? 4 


SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER II 


‘Aim: To UNDERSTAND THOROUGHLY THE CCNDITIONS 
THAT OBTAINED AMONG THE SLAVES AND THE PROG- 
RESS THEY MADE : 


1. When were the first slaves landed in America 

2.* What was the real motive for importing N 
groes to America? 

8. Name the countries most interested in thi 
traffic. 

4, Describe some of the horrors of the slave-trade, 

5.* Imagine and describe the condition of the mind 
of an African when he first landed on America 
soil. . 

6. What States made the first movement toward 
abolition? 

7. When and in what country was the slave-trade 
first abolished? 

8. What were the natural causes that segregated 
the slaves in the South? 


RN 2 “nm tt! 


Se ee 


eS ee ee 


SL 


10. 


11. 


12. 


13.* 


14. 


15. 


16. 


ye 


18. 


19.* 


20. 


21, 


American Slavery 63 


Why was it necessary to place the Negroes un: 
der restraint when they first landed in America? 
What proportion of the Negroes were enslaved 
and what proportion of the Southern whites 
owned slaves? 

What were the principal occupations of the 
slaves? 

Why was it not advantageous to an owner to 
neglect the care of his slaves? 

Why is it not just to assume that all owners 
or overseers treated the Negroes cruelly? 

What was the responsibility of an owner to his 
slaves? 

Name some of the regulations as to labor, moral 
and physical conditions, under which slaves 
were held. 

Why were these necessary? 

What were the duties of some of the most im- 
portant servants? 

What benefits did the Negroes acquire in slav- 
ery? 

Name some of the difficulties that surrounded 
the civilization of the Negroes. 

Name some of the difficulties in the way of 
evangelizing the slaves among the white people. 
What were the obstacles among the slaves that 
made their evangelization difficult? 


22.* How do you account for the success of mission- 


ary work among the slaves? 


64 The Upward Path 


REFERENCES FOR FuRTHER STUDY.—CHAPTER IT 


American Slavery.* 
Merriam: The Negro and the Nation, XII. 


Page, In Ole Virginia, 1-77. 4 
Page: The Negro: The Southerner’s Problem, 
I. 

Price: The Negro, IV, VI, VII. g 
Pyrnelle: Diddie, Dumps and Tot, I-XVII. 
Shannon: Racial Integrity, III. ) 
Sinclair: The Aftermath of Slavery, I. 5 


Washington: Up From Slavery, I, II. 
Washington: Frederick Douglass, I, II, III. 
Whipple: Negro Neighbors, I. 

Williams: History of the NEES Race, 25%, 
XXXI. 


1In these references the view-point of Negroes, Southerners and 
Northerners, is given. Students may select whichever they prefer. 
However, as a rule, it will be wise to have all sides presented. 


=; 


ee a 


Aats 


¥ 
We 
Pf 


*F 


As to actual behavior of the Negroes, under this su 
den and tremendous change of condition, certain fa¢ 
were noted; not a single act of vengeance was charge 
against them; a great part, probably the large majority 
remained or soon went back to work for their old em 
ployers; but a considerable part began an aimless roam 
ing to enjoy their new liberty, or huddle around the 
stations where the agents of the Freedmen’s Bureg 
doled out some relief. : 

—George S. Merriam — 


The white people of the South were harassed by press 
ing necessities, and most of them in a troubled ané 
greatly excited state of mind. The emancipation of the 
slaves had destroyed the traditional labor system “4 
which they had depended. 

—Carl Schurz 


The Southern people, blacks and whites, were in 
position of almost unexampled difficulty. To the rav: 
ages of war and invasion, of impoverishment and be 
reavement—and, as it fell out, to two successive sea 
sons of disastrous weather for erops,—was added at the 
outset a complete disarrangement of the principal sup 
ply of labor. The mental overturning was as great as 
the material. To the Negroes ‘‘ freedom ’’? brought a 
vague promise of life without toil or trouble. The haré 
facts soon undeceived them. 

—George 8. Merriam 


- It 
FIRST YEARS OF FREEDOM 


ocr again the American Negro, with- Another Step 
out his volition or personal effort, 
was subjected to a radical change in his 
ondition and forced to take another step 
n the onward movement of his racial life. 
if was a change as bewildering and at- 
tended with as much suffering as that 
which brought him out from the African 
jungle into American slavery. This time 
he was to pass over a sea, not of water but 
of blood, into a land of strange responsi- 
bilities. Like a babe cradled on a battle- 
field, amid the sounds of a strife in which 
he had no part, the Negro first breathed 
the priceless air of liberty and seized un- 
thinkingly upon its unearned privileges, 
aor counted its cost. As his feet entered 
the path leading onward and upward to a 
still further process in his evolution, he 
‘ound that that which his past life gave him 
was to prove his best preparation for the 
demands of his present, and the hard les- 


Demand for 
Freedom 


68 The Upward Path 


sons still to be learned were to be the 
‘‘ growing pains ”’ of a life that meant the 
real achievement that is wrought out from 
within. The inner processes of racial evo- 
lution cannot be ignored, though they may 
be hindered or accelerated from without. 

The Negro laborer in the South sang or 
sighed at his work, and partook of humar 
joy and sorrow all unconscious of the 
forces that were working out his destiny 
While the invention of the cotton-gin, car: 
peting the South with that great staple fo. 
which the commerce of the world waited 
increased the value of his labor and fas 
tened his bonds more surely, there was ¢ 
growing demand among the nations fol 
universal freedom. Strange to say, fron 
the Mother Country, which had forcec 
slavery upon her Southern colonies, cam 
the first ery for its abolishment, and thi 
cry was caught up in those Northern State: 
that, having rid themselves of the oppor 
tunity to bestow freedom on the Negro, noy 
demanded that others be more generous 11 
loosing his bonds. The underlying force 
worked mightily, and a great upheaval ap 
proached. 

While the antislavery sentiment wa 


First Years of Freedom 69 


growing in the North, the proslavery senti- 
ment was growing in the South. The aboli- 
tionist became fiercely uncompromising, 
and in his burning enthusiasm for the free- 
dom of the Negro represented the white 
slave-owner as little better than an agent 
of the devil, and his professions of Chris- 
tianity as almost blasphemous hypocrisy. 
An intelligent Christian gentleman stated 
recently that in home, school, and church 
he was taught that it was impossible to be 
both a Christian and a slave-owner, and 
that he hated the whole South until he 
srew old enough to think and see for him- 
self. 

The activities of the abolitionists in 
arousing prejudice against the South in 
the nation and in the world were bitterly 
resented, and when they extended to ef- 
rorts to incite the slaves to insurrection, the 
Southern man blazed with fury and heaped 
aathemas upon all Yankees. An aboli- 
jonist meant to him a ‘‘ canting fanatic ”’ 
who would steal, burn, and even murder 
white people to carry out his mistaken 
deas of good for the black man. 

That which began in recriminations be- 
zame open curses and violent demonstra- 


Northern 
Sentiment 


Southern 
Sentiment 


The Nation 
Aroused 


70 The Upward Path 


tions of hatred. Philanthropy entered upon 
the political arena, and sectional politicians 
fought out the battle in the national capi- 
tol. Brilliant intellect, intrepid courage, 
intense conviction, bitter prejudice, all 
combined to make the conflict amazing. 
The giants of the nation on both sides of 
the line were engaged in it. On one side 
the slogan was ‘‘ State Rights,’’ on the 
other ‘‘ Federal Power.’? Great constitu- 
tional questions were thus involved and 
their establishment became the supreme 
effort of the statesmen of the country, as 
each conceived them. But underneath it 
all was the question and fate of the institu- 
tion of slavery. 

eaters It would be useless to recount here the 
different steps of this political contest. It 
would be a long story to tell ‘‘ How the 
battle was lost and won.’’ Nor is it need- 
ful to rewrite the ‘‘ oft-told tale ’’ of the 
Civil War which out of political antago- 
nism burst like a fearful storm over oul 
devoted land. Hand to hand, foot to foot 
brother against brother, we fought oul 
fight to a finish. The world has nevet 
known such a war. Brave hearts on eacl 
side recognized the true soldier on the 


First Years of Freedom 71 


‘other, and when the end came, that final 
scene on the field of Appomattox is typical 
of the feelings of those who on both sides 
fought for what they deemed the right. 
‘The intrepid, great-souled Lee, accepting 
defeat, rendered up his sword with calm 
dignity to the conqueror. With true mag- 
nanimity, Grant, the invincible warrior, re- 
turned that sword with courteous words of 
refusal to claim such evidence of his tri- 
umph. God help us! What untold suffer- 
ing and shame would have been spared our 
country if that spirit had prevailed in the 
councils of the nation in the years that fol- 
lowed! 

Jt is an acknowledged fact that Negro 
slavery was made the cause of the war, yet 
whatever of wrong was wrought, or agony 
suffered, the Negro was an innocent cause, 
and in the immediate results the greater 
sufferer. After forty years one can look 
back and see how for his sake ignorance, 
hate, prejudice, and greed united in caus- 
ing that great national tragedy, and later 
on the still more bitter suffering to the 
South of the Reconstruction Period. But, 
alas! none can ever calculate the loss en- 
tailed upon him by the way his freedom 


The Negro the 
Greatest Sufferer 


‘ one to lead him and was recklessly pushed 


Praise for 
Negro 


72 The Upward Path 


eame to him. Nor has he yet been relieved 
of the destructive, degenerating influence 
brought to bear upon him when, like a 
child beginning to walk, he looked for some 


into a ditch and left to extricate himself. 
When he needed bread he was given a 
stone which, when he had thrown it, re 
bounded against himself. When he needed 
a light to keep his feet from straying, he 
was taught to look at the sun until his eyes 
were dazzled and he lost his way. 

Tt is hardly in place to introduce here a 
broad discussion of the matter, yet it would 
not be just to the Negro to remain silent im 
regard to some of the facts of this period 
of his history that redound to his praise, 
and others that plunged him into so man 
difficulties, political, industrial, and social 
and retarded all missionary effort in hi 
behalf. 

Writers and speakers, both white an 
black, have recorded these things in worth 
tributes to both races, and it seems well : 


repeat some of them here as the best pres 
entation of the subject to present-da 


readers. 
Thomas Nelson Page says: ‘‘ It is to th 
. 
3 
: 


First Years of Freedom 73 


eternal credit of the whites and of the Ne- 
groes that during the four years of war, 
when the white men of the South were ab- 
sent in the field, they could entrust their 
homes, their wives, their children, all they 
possessed, to the care and guardianship of 
their slaves with absolute confidence in 
their fidelity. An this trust was never 
violated. . . . Of the thousands who went 
as servants with their masters to the war 
I never heard of one who deserted to the 
North, and many had abundant opportu- 
nity.’’1 

‘They raised the crops that fed the 
Confederate army, and suffered without 
complaint the privations which came alike 
to white and black.’’ 2 

This is a tribute to both races, inasmuch 
as it shows that mutual love and kindness 
helped to keep the bondsman true to his 
master. 

Booker T. Washington says on this sub- 
ject: ‘‘ The self-control which the Negro 
exhibited during the war marks, it seems 
to me, one of the most important chapters 
in the history of the race. Notwithstand- 


ing he knew his master was away from 
1 Page, The Negro: The Southerner’s Problem, 188. 
3 Ibid., 22. 


Thomas Nelson 
Page’s Testimony 


Tribute to 
Both Races. 


Booker T. 
Washington’s 
Testimony 


Weakness of 
Reconstruction 
Period 


yet he worked faithfully for the support ot 
the master’s family. If the Negro hae 
yielded to the temptation and suggestior 
to use the torch or dagger in an attempt t 
destroy his master’s property or family 
the result would have been that the wai 
would have been quickly ended; for th 
master would have returned rales the bat 
tle-field to protect and defend his property 
and family. But the Negro to the last wa 
faithful to the trust that had been thrus 
upon him, and during the four years of wa: 
there is not a single instance recordec 
where he attempted in any way to outrag 
the family or to injure his mpaier Ss prop 
erty? 

The same writer says of the Reconstrue 
tion Period: ‘‘At the close of the war botl 
the white man and the Negro found them 
selves in the midst of poverty. The ex 
master returned from the war to find hi 
slave property gene, his farms and othe 
industries in a state of collapse, and th 
whole industrial or economic system upol 
which he had depended for years entirel; 


1 Washington, The Future of the American Negro, 8, 9. 


First Years of Freedom 75 


lisorganized. . . . The weak point, to 
ny mind, in the reconstruction era, was 
hat no strong force was brought to bear in 
he direction of preparing the Negro to be- 
some an intelligent, reliable citizen and 
oter. The main effort seems to have been 
o the direction of controlling his vote for 
he time being, regardless of future inter- 


eT hardly believe that any race of people 


toundings would have acted more wisely 
w very differently from the way the Negro 
icted during this period of reconstruction. 
Without experience, without preparation, 
ind in most cases without ordinary intelli- 
rence, he was encouraged to leave the field 
ind shop and enter polities. That under 
such circumstances he should have made 
mistakes is very natural. I do not believe 
hat the Negro was so much at fault for en- 
lering so largely into politics and for the 
mistakes that were made in too many cases, 
is were the unscrupulous white leaders 
vho got the Negro’s confidence and con- 
‘rolled his vote to further their own ends, 
regardless of the permanent welfare of the 
Beero. .. ; 


with similar preparation and similar sur- 5 


Negro 
Unprepared for 
Reconstruction 
eriod 


Lack of 
Sympathy 


Among Souther 
hite M 


n 


en 


76 The Upward Path } 

‘‘ Tt was unfortunate that the Souther 
white man did not make more of an effor 
at this time to get the confidence and sym 
pathy of the Negro, and thus keep him ii 
close touch and sympathy in politics. I 
was also unfortunate that the Negro wai 
so completely alienated from the Souther 
white man. I think it would have been bet 
ter for all concerned if, immediately afte 
the close of the war, an educational an 
property qualification for the exercise 0 
the franchise had been prescribed tha 
would have applied fairly and squarely f 
both races, and also if, in educating th 
Negro, greater stress had been put on train 
ing him along the lines of industry fo 
which his services were in the greatest de 
mand in the South. . . . IL believe thi 
period serves to point out many weal 
points in our effort to elevate the Negre 
and that we are now taking advantage o 
the mistakes that were made. . . . Wha 
is needed is to apply these lessons bravel, 
and honestly in laying the foundation upo 
which the Negro can stand in the futur 
and make himself a useful, honorable, an 
desirable citizen.’?? 


ea 


i 
J 


1 Washington, The Future of the American Negro, 10-15. . y 
| 


First Years of Freedom 77 


_ Of the Reconstruction Period Mr. Page 
says: ‘‘ When the war closed the friend- 
ship between the races was never stronger; 
the relations were never more closely 
welded. Hach recognized and appreciated 
the good in the other. ‘‘ The majority of 
the slaves heard of their freedom first 
from their own masters. . . . The joy 
with which the slaves hailed emancipation 
did not relax the bonds of affection be- 
tween them and their former masters and 
owners. There was, of course, much dis- 
organization and no little misunderstand- 
ing. The whites, defeated and broken, 
but unquelled and undismayed, were un- 
speakably sore; the Negroes, suddenly 
freed and facing an unknown condition, 
were naturally in a state of excitement. 
But the transition was accomplished with- 
out an outbreak or an outrage... or 


side. This was reserved for a later time 
when a new poison had been instilled into 
the Negro’s mind and had begun to 
work. . . 

ten “<< For years after the war many of the 
older Negroes, men and women, remained 


the faithful guardians of the white women 


even few incidents of ill temper on either ° 


Strong Bond 
of Friendship at 
Close of War 


Negroes 
Deserted Fields 


False 
Anticipations of 


egroes ¢¢ 


78 The Upward Path 


and children of their dead masters’ fam= 
ilies. . . . The first pressing necessity im 
the South was to secure the means of liv: 
ing, for in sections where the armies had 
been the country was swept clean and in 
all sections the entire labor system was dis- 
organized. . . . In most instances the old 
masters informed their servants that their 
homes were open to them, and if they were 
willing to remain and work, they would do 
all in their power to help them. But to re- 
main, in the first radiant holiday of free- 
dom, was, perhaps, more than could be ex- 
pected of human nature, and most of the 
blacks went off for a while, though later a 
large number of them seamal il In a little 
while the country was filled with an army 
of occupation. The Negro, moved by ecuri- 
osity, the novelty, and mainly by the love 
of the rations which the government imme- 
diately began to distribute, not unnaturally 
flocked to the posts of the local garrison 
leaving the fields unworked and the cro 
to go to destruction.’ 1 " 
These unworked lands were declared 
abandoned lands,’’ and in some places 
they were given by government officials a 


1Page, The Negro: The Southerner’s Problem, 28-30, 188, 19: 


a ag ae — 


First Years of Freedom 79 


the Negroes who retained possession of 
them. The idea became widespread that 


the government intended to divide the land 


of the whites among the Negroes and the 
belief became current that every Negro was 
to receive ‘‘ forty acres and a mule.”’ 

The antagonism felt by the white people 
toward each other, North and South, mani- 
fested itself in bets different opinions in 
regard to existing conditions in the South 
and how they should be met. The North 
believed the Negro was, or might be made, 
the actual equal of the white. The South 
held that he was not; and that, suddenly re- 
leased from atavery. he must, to prevent 
his becoming a menace and a burden, be 
controlled and compelled to work. In then 
warring efforts almost every possible mis- 
take was made by North and South, white 
and black. 
| The Freedmen’s Bureau came into the 
oe with almost unlimited authority, 
backed by the United States army and 
treasury. ‘‘ It made laws, executed them, 
and interpreted them; it laid and collected 
taxes; defined and punished crime; main- 
tained and used military force; and dic- 
tated such measures as it thought neces- 


Mutual 
Mistakes 


Freedmen’s 
Bureau 


80 The Upward Path 


- sary and proper for the accomplishment of 
its varied ends.’’* Its chief purpose, in 
fact only purpose, was to care for the freed- 
man and advance his interests, and to that 
end all its legislative, judicial, and execu 
tive powers were exercised, usually with: 
out regard to the interests of the white 
population. Through its influence the 
Union League was formed among the Ne 
groes—an organization whose inflammatory 
teaching consolidated the Negro race 
against the white and whose bitter frui 
still survives. | 

Carpetbageer and = ‘Then came the postbellum politicians 4 
“* carpetbagger ’’ and ‘‘ sealawag ’?2—whe 
made the Negroes the instruments by which 
they enriched themselves. Their oppor. 
tunity was the Fifteenth Amendment—now wv 

’ generally acknowledged North and South 

a national blunder—which enfranchised a 

great mass of ignorant blacks and disfran- 

chised the most intelligent and conservative 

class of whites; their power was the —_ 

eral army. ; 

pisaxiztt The eight years following, ee as the 
Years Reconstruction Period, possibly cost the 

1‘* The Negro Common School,’? Atlantic Monthly, March, 1901, 


2 The ‘‘ carpetbagger ’? came from the North, the ‘ scalawag 
Was a mean Southern white man. 


Copyright, Gilbo & Co. 


ABRAHAM LINCOLN 


First Years of Freedom 81 


South more than the four years of war 
cost her.1 When these eight years of Ne- 
gro domination under carpetbag leaders 
had passed, the public indebtedness of the 
Southern States had increased about four- 
fold. While the property values in all the 
States had shrunk, in those which were un- 
der Negro rule they had fallen to less 
than half what they had been when the 
South entered upon that period. The South 
does not hold that the Negro race was pri- 
marily responsible for this travesty of gov- 
ernment. Few reasonable men now charge 
the Negroes at large with more than ig- 
norance and an invincible faculty for being 
““< worked on.’’ But the consequences were 
not the less disastrous. 
_ “* The injury to the whites was not the 
only injury caused by the reconstruction 
system. To the Negro, the object of its 
‘bounty, it was no less a calamity. He was 
taught that the white man (Southern) was 
his enemy, when he should have been taught 
to cultivate his friendship. He was told he 
was the equal of the white man, when he 
was not; that he was the ward of the nation, 
when he should have been trained to self- 


1 Page, The Negro: The Southerner’s Problem, 45. 


The Negr 
Mistaught 


Lincoln’s 
an 


Some True 
Soldiers 


82 The Upward Path 


reliance; that the government would sus- 
tain him, when he could not be sustained, 
In legislation he was taught thieving; im 
politics to slavishly follow his leaders; 
private life he was taught insolence. . . | 
To these teachings may be traced most of 
the misfortunes of the Negro race, and in- 
deed of the whole South since the war.’’! 

It is but just to say that throughout the | 
North there was a large element who fa- 
vored Lincoln’s plan of reconstruction,2 
which, if his foul assassination had not pre- 
vented, he would have carried out, and 
thereby added a still greater luster to his 
name in securing a complete restoration of 
the Union without destroying a par’ of it. 

Among those who came South as officers. 
in the army there were some who—true 
soldiers—came in obedience to orders, but) 
with no desire to injure the South in obey- 
ing those orders. They honestly and ear- 
nestly sought to do their duty by all, white 
and black. The difficulties and perplexities 
surrounding them were great, not the least 

1 Page, The Negro: The Southerner’s Problem, 47, 48. a 

2 Lincoln’s plan would have restored the seceded States to their 
former status in the Union under the Constitution. In the plan 
adopted by congress, those States were regarded as a conquered 


province, and military occupation was deemed necessary to quell 
any possible attempt at revolution. 


First Years of Freedom 83 


being that their presence was resented by 
the whites, their sympathy was imposed 
| upon by the blacks, and any attempt to deal 
justly between them excited suspicion of 
— loyalty. These sometimes received 
undeserved retaliation from the whites for 
the misdeeds of others which they had not 
endorsed. 

It must also be said that while the wisest 
and best men of the South counseled con- 
‘Servative action, there were many whose 
losses and wrongs stung them to reckless 
resistance. Attempts at coercive legisla- 
tion and private efforts to retrieve the situ- 
ation proved alike their impotence and 
their bitterness. Mistakes and errors seemed 
the order of the day on both sides, and 
the Negro was the shuttlecock between 
their battledores—now tossed high in the 
air, now struck down to the ground. He 
‘was too ignorant to rule, yet he deserved 
a citizen’s rights. The wonder is that he 
should have come out of this political strife 
os well as he did. 

The process used in making the recently 
emancipated freedman into a citizen re- 
versed all natural order and logical se- 
quence. It was like demanding foliage, 


| 
| 


Negro the 
Shuttlecock 


egr 


Ci 


Negro not 
Ready for Full 
tizenship 


Ignorance in 
Power 


/ right to vote, but was himself placed 


84 The Upward Path 


flower, and fruit of a newly planted root 
in expecting results before causes were set 
in motion to produce them. Looking back 
over the forty years that have passed, we 
might in the light of the present laugh over 
those ‘‘ first days ’’ as a farce, if it were 
not that its tragedy makes us weep. | 

Our civilization finds not only its unit in 


it. Our form of government to be success- 
ful requires, though it does not always find, 
intelligence in the people from whom its 
power emanates, statesmanship in its legis- 
lators, integrity in its executive officers, and 
a pure judiciary. Ere the Negro could 
make a home and learn to fulfil the duties 
of a free husband and father, before he had 
time to gain the rudiments of an education, 
while he was yet ignorant of the Constitu- 
tion (except the Thirteenth Amendment ) 
and the existing laws of the nation and the 
state, he had forced upon him, not only the 


high official position in municipal and state 
governments, where he must make laws 
and administer them, where he must pre- 
side over the courts and render judicial 
decisions. And this power was to be exery 


a a 


First Years of Freedom 85 


cised not over himself alone, but over a 
race accustomed to self-government and to 
governing their new rulers. 

For eight years a number of Southern 
states were partly, and three of them were 
wholly, given up to Negro control. The 
Negro was invested with absolute power 
and turned loose, with the strength of the 
Federal army back of him, always to be 
exercised in his favor and against the pro- 
testing white man. ‘‘ What was the result? 
‘Such a riot of folly and extravagance, such 
a travesty of justice, such a mummery of 

government as was never before wit- 
nessed.’’ Governor Chamberlain, of South 
Carolina, though representing the policy 
and authority of the North, declared: ‘‘ The 
civilization of the Puritan and Cavalier, of 
‘the Round Head and the Huguenot, is in 
: peril.’ 
have been made possible only (1) by his 
“numbers and the disfranchisement of al- 
most the entire Southern white voters; (2) 
the bitter political partizanship that sought 
to punish the South and use the Negro as a 
whip, and allowed unprincipled men to use 
that whip to gorge themselves with the re- 


Travesty of 
Negro Control 


Causes that 


A eondition such as is described could produced 


Conditions 


86 The Upward Path 


sults of his fraud and thievery; and (3) the 
Army of Occupation. 

Franchisea That the Negro, so handicapped by his. | 
own ignorance and these demoralizing in- 
fluences, would prove an undesirable, even 
dangerous ruling element, was a foregone 
conclusion, and, as time has passed, has 
served to emphasize the mistake of those 
who added the Fifteenth Amendment to 
the Constitution so soon after emancipa- 
tion. The general opinion of dispassionate 
men, even many of those who had a part in» 
it, has come to regard it as untimely. The 
most intelligent leaders of the Negro race 
now coincide with this view. The fran- 
chise might well have waited for his own 
sake until the freedman had acquired the 
knowledge to use it creditably to himself. 

Negro Rule The carpetbag politicians disappeared 
with the Army of Occupation and the 
Freedmen’s Bureau, and then Negro rule 
crumbled. But, alas! the Negro had to 
stay and bear the burden of the mistakes 
of all these, and to become the subjective 
and objective victim of the race hatred 
they had engendered. It did not take long 


for the white race to regain the supremacy 


1 A term applied to the Federal forces stationed. in the South 
at that time. 


First Years of Freedom 87 


to which they claimed the right and to re- 
organize the whole system of state gov- 
ernment. 

That drastic, illegal measures were used 
in many instances to secure this is an un- 
disputed fact. For this, explanation was 
given in the oft-repeated terse proverbs, 
<< Necessity knows no law,’’ and ‘‘ Self- 
preservation is the first law of life.’? The 
general feeling was expressed in the state- 
ment, ‘‘ This is war, not politics,’’ and af- 
ter-history shows that they recognized the 
true situation. This is borne out by the re- 
markably frank articles by Carl Schurz, 
recently published in McClure’s Magazine 
under the captions of ‘‘ First Days of Re- 
construction,’’ and ‘‘ The Repudiation of 
Johnson’s Policy.”’ 

Later, many of the states held conven- 
tions that adopted new Constitutions which 
by their educational qualifications virtu- 
ally disfranchised the great mass of Negro 
voters who were illiterate. If this has 
proved an incentive to education among 
the blacks it has given them an advantage 
over the illiterate white of the exempt class 
who are left without such incentive. 

Dr. G. Stanley Hall in his pamphlet, 


Illegal Measures 
Employed 


Negro 
Disfranchised 


Dr. G. aay 
Hall 


Negroes Arrayed 
Against Old 
Masters 


88 The Upward Path 


‘¢ The Negro in Africa and America,’’ says: 
‘¢ After the war the majority at the North 
continued the policy of giving the Negro 

the ballot, which Lincoln disapproved and 
which had been persistently refused him i in 
many Northern states. It was given, if 
not as a penalizing measure to those lately 

in rebellion, at least as a weapon to safe- 

guard the freedom of these new wards of 
the nation. Then followed the eight years 
beginning with 1867, so tragic for the 
South, involving enormous waste and con- 
fusion, an indebtedness equaling the entire 
cost of the war plus the value of the slaves’ 
as property, negroizing more or less one 
third of the States of the Union until they 
seemed to be on the downward path toward 
conditions like those of Hayti, San Do- 
mingo, or Porto Rico. 

y Whatever allegiance and friendship) 
the Negroes had felt for their old masters 
was transferred to their new Northern al- 
lies. For myself, as abolitionist both by 
conviction and descent, I wish to confess 
my error of opinion in those days; and I be- 
lieve that all candid minds who, in Kelly 
Miller’s trenchant phrase, study rather 
than discuss the problem, and are not too 


i 
| First Years of Freedom 89 


old to learn, are ready to confess mistakes. 
Even the Freedmen’s Bureau helped to 
make the colored man at the South feel de- 
pendent upon the North rather than upon 
his own efforts. Much as the New South 
: has done to outgrow these evils, perhaps 
the worst effect of all these years is now 
seen in the fact that Southern Negroes are 
a solidified party arrayed against their old 
“masters on all questions, and cannot divide 
freely among themselves even on local and 
economic problems, or follow their old in- 
terests, but the party and color line still 
coincide.” 
All that has been said has related to the 
political rather than the industrial, social, 
and religious aspects of the freedman’s 
condition. Yet slow indeed would we be 
in noting cause and effect in the moral 
world, if we failed to see how the facts 
stated affected the whole life of the Negro 
in the nation. 
| Let be said against slavery what may be 
said, it at least taught industrial habits and 
obedience to law, and prohibited many of 
the grosser vices. With its restraints taken 
away, every form of vice became rampant. 


Conditions 
Affected 
Life of Negro 


Freedom — 


_Drunkenness, gambling, stealing, lying, and _ 


War Destroyed 
Church 


Privileges 


* 
90 The Upward Path ) 


sensuality found opportunity and encour- 
agement never known before. To the ma- 
jority freedom meant license and idleness. 
Work of any kind was regarded as an ex- 
pression of slavery. 

The Negroes had either shared the 
Church privileges of the white people, or 
had them provided by the whites. They 
now suffered the same deprivation of those 
privileges that the white people did when 
the reckless hand of war destroyed the 
churches, or turned them into barracks or 
hospitals; or when the pastor or mission- 
ary became the chaplain or soldier. In 
some places where the federal forces had 
not entered, the plantation missions were 
kept up during the war, and the Negro 
preacher continued his exhortations and 
Christian mistresses their ministrations. 
But gradually the whole land lay van- 
quished and desolate, and white and black 
suffered alike for a while in the loss of the 
ordinary religious ministry. The poverty 
of the white people made it scarcely possi- 
ble now to support churches for themselves, 
and all missionary work was necessarily 
suspended, and this was at the very time 
when the Negro’s temptation was greatest 


First Years of Freedom 91 


to break away from all religious restraints 
and indulge in sinful excesses. 

_ The older Christians among the Negroes 
saw and deplored the fact that, while they 
held fast to their Christian profession, the 
younger and less established in the ways of 
righteousness were being swept away in 
the current of sin. As one old mother ex- 
pressed it: ‘‘ My chilluns is a-breakin’ my 
heart while dey’s doin’ dey best to kill dey 
own souls. Dey won’t listen to me, nor to 
Brer’ Sam’ul, and when I ax ole Miss’ ter 
talk ter um lak what she uster, dey won’t 
listen ter her nuther, and ole Marster he 
ean’t do nothing nuther. Me an ole Miss’ 
we des prays for um, kaze dat’s all we kin 
do.”’ 

To these faithful ones, white and black, 
who sought in every way to stay the mad 
rush of the weaker element into destruc- 
tion, belongs the praise of preserving that 
which was best to the race through this 
time of trial and temptation. ‘‘ To them 
Shall be given a crown of life.’’ In line 
with the work formerly done among their 
own slaves, Sunday-schools were opened in 
many places by devout men and women, 
evangelistic services were held when pos- 


| 
| 
| 


| 


Younger Negroes 
Swept Away 
by Si 


Christian Efforts 
Thwarted 


Experience a 
Corrective 


Unprepared for 
Responsibility 


* 


92 The Upward Path i 
f 
sible, and efforts were made to induce the 
Negroes to attend. But as the days went 
by and distrust and insolence grew among 
the younger Negroes, these efforts were 
unavailing. Strange to say, sometimes 
they were objected to by some Southern 
white people, who also had come in turn 
to feel bitter resentment and distrust to- 
ward the Negroes. 

It is hard for any one who did not see. 
and grieve over it to understand the condi- 
tion of the poor black people during the 
first period following the war. Those who 
did, though suffering with and from them, 
can scarcely restrain their tears to-day 
when the memory of it rises before them. 
They have by virtue of these memories a 
better understanding of some of the things 
of to-day than have those, North and 
South, who did not see this part of the Ne- 
gro’s history, and know what was in his. 
past. 

Cared for in every respect as slaves, 
guided in their work, provided with all the 
necessaries of life, nursed in sickness, pro- 
tected from labor and hardships in child- 
hood and age, how could the Negroes, in a 
moment, as it were, know as freedmen how | 


First Years of Freedom 93 


to do all these things for themselves? The 
land was filled with wandering vagrants, 
‘who either would not work, or who fol- 
lowed those who refused to do so, Family 
| ties were sundered by them, either from in- 
difference or necessity, far widely and 
| ‘more frequently than during the days of 
slavery. 

_ They had no home, and often their only Hunger, Sickness 
‘shelter was a crude shed, while frequently 
they lay in the open field, weary pilgrims 
‘seeking they knew not what. Clothing 
igrew so ragged as scarcely to cover the 
inakedness of their emaciated bodies; dis- 
‘ease unattended to, with no money for 
|physician or medicine, carried off thou- 
‘sands, especially children and delicate 
| women reared as house servants. Deluded 
“with impossible promises, they hoped for 
| wealth as a part of freedom. Their disap- 
‘pointment was practically expressed by one 
who said: ‘‘ I thought when I got free I’d 
|hev a big white house an’ do lak Missus 
did. I’d hev a fine silk dress a-trailin’ on 
de carpet, all trimmed up wid lace, an’ er 
/mahogamy table, a-shinin’ wid silver. But 
‘freedom ain’t meant nuffin ter me yit but 
‘sickness an’ hunger an’ sorrer, an’ instid of 


Necessity Drove 
to Work 


Dishonesty in 
Control 


Desolation 
of War 


94 The Upward Path 


workin’ my main bizness has been a-burrin 
of my dead.’’ “i 

The outcome of their baseless hopes at 
the time was temporary pauperism for the 
mass, but there were many who did not 
‘“lose their heads,’’ but went steadily on 
working for wages, or ‘‘ on shares,’’ and” 
by their industry, honesty, and thrift se-— 
cured a competency and retained the re- 
spect of the white people. Their number 
constantly increased as the first wild ex- 
citement wore off and necessity drove back 
to work some who had been vagrants. 

It did not help either of these classes to 
see the worst men of their race becoming 
the great men set up in the high places and 
clothed with political and judicial power, 
‘“ spreading like a green bay tree.’’ It was 
an unsafe object-lesson that taught many 
that ‘‘ dishonesty is its own reward;’” 
while of those poor tools of the ‘‘ carpet- 
bag ’’ politician it might well have been 
said, ‘‘ Whom the gods would destroy they 
first make mad.”’ | 

The war-desolated South is thus de- 
scribed by Carl Schurz: ‘‘ My travels in the 
South in the summer and fall of 1865 took 
me over the track of Sherman’s march. 


Copyright, Underwood and Underwood 


Copyright, H. C. White Co. 


First Years of Freedom 95 


'. . . . It looked for many miles a broad, 
black ea of ruin and desolation—fences 
gone, lonesome smokestacks surrounded by 
dark heaps of ashes and cinders, marking 
the spot where human habitations had 
‘stood, the fields along the road wildly over- 
grown by weeds, with here and there a | 
sickly looking patch of cotton or corn, cul- 
tivated by Negro squatters. Even those 
Tegions which had been touched but little 
or not at all by military operations were 
laboring under dire distress. . . . Con- 
federate money had become meeenleees 
Only a few individuals of more or less 
wealth had been fortunate enough to save, 
and keep throughout the war, small hoards 
of gold and silver. . . . The Beep le may 
be said to have been without a‘ circulating 
medium ’ to serve in the ordinary transac- 
tions of business. . . . United States 
money could not be had hor anything; it 
could only be obtained by selling something 
for it in the shape of goods or of labor. 
. .. They had of course very little to 
sell ... . and needed all their laboring 
lpapacity to provide for the wants of the 
next day. | 
‘The whole agricultural labor system 


culture at 
wa Standstill 


Southern People 
Financially 
mbarrassed 


96 The Upward Path . 

: 
was turned upside down. Many of the Ne- 
groes, especially in the neighborhood of 
towns or of Federal encampments, very 
naturally yielded to the temptation of test- 
ing and enjoying their freedom by walking 
away from the plantations to frolic. . . i 
In various parts of the South the highways 
and byways were alive with ‘ foot-loose ’” 
colored people. . . . They stayed away 
from the plantations just when their labor 
was most needed to secure the crops of the 
season, and those crops were more than 
ordinarily needed to save the population 
from continued want and misery. Violent 
efforts were made by white men to drive 
the straggling Negroes back to the planta- 
tions by force, and reports of bloody out- 
rages inflicted upon colored people came 
from many quarters. . . . The total over- 
turning of the whole labor system of a 
country accomplished suddenly without 
preparation or general transition, is a tre- 
mendous revolution, a terrible wrench, well 
apt to confuse men’s minds. . . . It was 
indeed an appalling situation, looking in 
many respects almost hopeless.’’* | 


From this description it is a patent fact 
1 Schurz, ‘‘ First Days of Reconstruction,” McOlure’s Magazine, 
May, 1908. 


First Years of Freedom 97 


that the Southern people were powerless to 
zid in a financial way the poverty-stricken 
black population. Other circumstances as 
ompletely hindered them from aiding 
hem in other ways. 

Into this rupture of the whole life of the 
land, involving the poverty and suffering 
of both races, came the first missionaries 
from the North to ‘‘ seek and to save ’”’ the 
egro. Theirs was a delicate task, and the 
way to its accomplishment was one that an 
angel might well hesitate to tread. Some 
them were wise as well as godly, and 
were a blessing to the Negroes in their 


their labors. To these men and women all 
praise be given. ‘‘ Many shall rise up in 


awise should have extended to them also, 
and that even yet many of the Southern 
people do not discriminate between the two 
lasses. That justice may be done to both 
sides, some explanations are needed of this 
painful state of feeling and its unfortunate 
results. 


Missionary Work 
a Delicate Task 


98 The Upward Path 


Existing © Many of these teachers had been bitter. y 


Conditions iA ier i 
Misunderstood prejudiced against the exslave-owners by 


8 fugitive slaves, and verily they wou ° 
have thought then did God’s service if they 
might have punished the ‘‘ oppressors 
still more severely. They had no apprec 
ative knowledge of the race traits or thi 
characteristics of the Negro. They did not 
realize his primitive condition nor the lon, 
hard process of evangelizing and civilizin; 
him, therefore they could not know hoy 
much had been accomplished for him by t 
Southern white people. They thought o 
the Negro as a Caucasian with a black skin 
who had been robbed of his possesse 
rights and brutally treated, and all his ig- 
norance and sin and misery were laid at 
the door of the white man. Taking no ac 
count of the recent terrible cataclysm 
through which both races had passed, they 
failed to recognize existing conditions as in 
part, at least, resulting from it. 

Unwise Teaching Sad to say, they transmitted these ay 


rouse 


Animosity to their pupils, young and old, in the school 
and in the cabin, and the tares of distrust 
and resentment (not purposely, it is hoped) 
were sown along with the good seed of the 

i 


id 


GENERAL O. O. HowaArD 


| ‘First Years of Freedom 99 


Zospel and the primer. These tares bore 
gerous fruit in the lives and manners 
af the impressionable Negroes, and the 
| thite people learned from them in various 
pleasant ways (possibly much exagger- 
ted) what the missionary and teacher 
vere saying, and they took bitter offense 
tsuch instruction. Especially was this re- 
entment felt by the Southern women. 
their land was battle-scarred, its desolate 
ds were filled with the unsodded graves 
their dead, they had endured untold 
iardships during the war, and now poverty 
md its unaccustomed labor pressed upon 
y of them. They were boiling with in- 
ation under the double rule of the 
‘mmy and the Negro; they were fearfully 
‘onscious of the danger that lurked at 
tvery window and door; and now it was 
itolerable to have iivate: with whom they 
ad once lived in affectionate intercourse, 
nd upon whom as the only servant class 
hey were still dependent, so turned against 
that their presence in the home was 
fiensive even when it could be secured.t 
Was it a wonder under the cireum- 


| 2In some instances they saw their ancestral homes and Incra- 
plantations confiscated and used for Negro schools, or sold for 
Coe Maintenance. (See report of Gen. Howard for 1869; also 
flanta University Publications, No. 6, pp. 22, 29.) This did not 
to good feeling. 


5 > eee = 


Northern 
Teachers 
Ostracized 


Some Mistakes 
Unavoidable 


100 The Upward Path 


sani that the strangers were regarded 
‘¢ political emissaries ’’ (in a certain 
sense regarded as the anarchist is to-day), 
rather than as Christian missionaries? Was 
it wonderful that the far-famed ‘‘ Southern 
hospitality ’? was not extended and the 
Northern teacher felt herself, as she was, 
socially ostracized? + 
These first missionaries saw the worst of 
the worst state of the Negro, and the good 
was overshadowed by it so that there 
seemed no good at all or else the good was 
deified. Their ignorance was felt by the 
South to be almost unpardonable, for i 
caused them to misunderstand and there 
fore to misrepresent causes and condition 
The truth was exaggerated, when it w 
bad enough, by their writing of the wors 
and picturing that as typical of all, and by 
the narration of distressing tnoidents 
the ordinary experience. These fearful re- 
ports sent back to the North aroused there 
a perfect fever of sympathy for the Negre 
and in many cases a greater dislike for the 
Southern white man. Enthusiasm ran high 
and all kinds of effort were put forth ir 
behalf of the slaves. Zeal quickened inte 
action, and without waiting for the prepa 


First Years of Freedom 101 


ration of knowledge, large numbers of en- 
thusiastic men and women were “ thrust 
forth into the harvest.’’ Money from the 
plethoric purses of the North was poured 
into the poverty-stricken South for the 
education of the Negro. Under such con- 
ditions it was impossible that mistakes 
should not have been made, serious mis- 
takes, as to the character of educative work 
to be done and the methods best suited to 
the Negro race and to its present needs and 
future development. 

_ Thanks be to God, there was also much 
good wrought, and by his overruling provi- 


takes to work to his glory by bene val- 
uable lessons by which better service may 
be rendered in the future. Not the least 
these lessons is the larger knowledge of 
the character of the race, its needs and pos- 
sibilities. This has anal disappoint- 
ment to some and encouragement to others. 
* The Negro has been found to be neither 
an angel nor a devil, simply a man.’’ The 
halo of the saint and martyr has been lifted 
om his head. Underneath his foibles and 


1This is not written with any desire to emphasize missionary 
mistakes. These have occurred in the beginning of all missionary 
nterprises and have served as stepping-stones to better things. 


Valuable 


Intelligent 
Christian 
Leadership the 
Solution 


102 The Upward Path 


weakness the kindly heart has been found 
When intellect has seemed to be lacking 
deep spiritual perception has been discov 
ered, and when the classics ‘‘didn’t fit,’’ the 
hand has been made skilful. How to ‘‘ live 
the common life of daily task ’’ nobly ane 
honestly has been found to be a lesson ofte1 
needed and gained when circumstances for. 
bade the halls of learning. | 

It was hard that while his white friend: 
were learning how to help him, the Negrc 
should suffer from their mistakes, but slow 
ly, ploddingly, by that help and the pres 
sure of his own needs, he is emerging fron 
the chaotic condition of the freedman int 
responsible citizenship. The greatest fore 
in his uplift has and will come from th 
trained intelligence of the Christian mei 
and women of his own race. Comparativel; 
few, it may be, have shared in this task a 
yet, but that few are proving a leaven tha 
‘“ will leaven the whole lump.’’ 


CLASS IN DOMESTIC SCIENCE 


ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING 


| 


First Years of Freedom 103 


SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER III 


4im: To UNDERSTAND THE EFFECT OF THE FIRST YEARS 


Ue 


(pag 


as 


14.* 


OF FREEDOM UPON THE NEGROES 


What was the sentiment in the Northern and 
Southern States in regard to the abolition of 
slavery? 

How were the early abolitionists treated in the 
North? Give examples. 

What relation did slavery have to the declara- 
tion of war? 

Why does the Negro deserve credit for his con- 
duet during the Civil War? 


-~ Was the Negro prepared for the duties of com- 


plete citizenship? 

Name some of the false anticipations that de- 
luded the Negroes. 

Name some of the causes of the changed finan- 
cial and industrial conditions in the South after 
the Civil War. 

Describe fully the work of the Freedmen’s 
Bureau. 

What is the difference between a ‘‘ carpet- 
bagger ’? and a ‘‘ scalawag ’’? 

Name some of the mistakes that were made by 
both the North and the South during the Re- 
construction Period. 

In what ways was the Negro a sufferer physi- 
cally and morally during the Reconstruction 
Period? 

How did the period especially effect the relig- 
ious life of the Negro? 

What mistakes were made by some mission- 
aries from the North? 

How may we profit in our religious work by 
the mistakes of the past? 


104 The Upward Path 


REFERENCES FOR FurTHER Stupy.—CHapter IIT ¥ 


The First Years of Freedom. 
Avary: Dixie After the War, XII-XV, XVII. 
DuBois: The Souls of the Black Folk, II. 
Merriam: The Negro and the Nation, XVI 
XXVII. q 
Page: The Negro: The Southerner’s Problem, 
200 4 

Price: The Negro, VIII, IX. 

Sinclair: The Aftermath of Slavery, II. 

Thomas: The American Negro, 44-47. 

Washington: Frederick Douglas, III. 


— 


Ss 


> 


i ee 


es ee 


AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 


lt 


Gloucester County is the tide-water section of easter 
Virginia. According to the census of 1890, Gloucester 
County contained a total population of 12,832, a littl | 
over one half being colored. . . . According to the pul 
lie records, the total assessed value of the land in Glo 
cester County is $666,132. Of the total value of th 
land, the colored people own $87,953. The buildings i 
the country have an assessed valuation of $466,127. 
colored people pay taxes upon $79,387 of this amount 
To state it differently, the Negroes of Gloucester County, 
beginning about forty years ago in poverty, have 
reached the point where they now own and pay taxes 
upon one-sixth of the real estate in this county. 1e 
property is very largely in the shape of small farms, 
varying in size from ten to one hundred acres. A large 
proportion of the farms contain about ten acres. % 


—Booker T. Washington 


Looking back through the American history of the 
Negroes and considering the vicissitudes of their i 
the hardships some of them have endured and the 
sultant condition, their faithfulness in captivity, th 
peacefulness for two hundred years, their evolution fr 
complete ignorance, their rapid adoption of the wh 
man’s methods, and their amiable life as a people, — 
fair-minded and unprejudiced student must accord th 
a high place among the laboring populations of the eart 
As a race they have done well. As a race they are do- 
ing weil. As a race they do produce criminals, so does 
our own; so does every race under the sun. x 

—Harry Stillwell Edwards — 


m 


| IV 
INDUSTRIAL AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 


A T the time of the Negro’s emancipa- 
} tion there was much doubt expressed 
as to his ability to meet the demands of 
a life upon the free man. ‘‘ Will he 
be able to feed, clothe, and shelter him- 
self?’ was the question asked. To which 
he has given a humble but brave answer. 
Since those first mad days of delirium and 
of license the race as a race (with excep- 
tions of course) has fed and clothed and 
sheltered itself. This has been done by 
patient, ceaseless toil, with many hard- 
ships and discouragements under which 
the weaker element has succumbed, but 
which the stronger majority has borne 
with courageous cheerfulness. 
Harlan P. Beach says: ‘‘ The African 
has been stigmatized as lazy and wholly ir- 
responsible. His laziness is the legitimate 
result of having nothing worth while to do. 
is simple wants are easily supplied, and 
as work under indigenous conditions can 


| 


Has Proved 
His Ability 


Harlan P. Beach 
Quoted 


Drummond 
Quoted 


A Host of 
Earnest 
Laborers 


108 The Upward Path 


secure him nothing more than is now in hij 
possession, he yields before his tropical en 
vironment. This is not the case where suf 
ficient incentive for labor exists; as wit 
ness the natives along the whee on he 
great transport routes or railways in con 
struction, and in the far interior where ¢ 
work like the Stevenson Road suddenly de 
velops surprising trustworthiness ant 
willingness to labor.’’} | 

Drummond says: ‘‘In eapacity thi 
African is fit to work, in inclination he i 
willing to work, and in actual experimen 
he has done it; so that with capital enliste 
and wise heads to direct these energies 
with considerate employers who will re 
member that these men are but childre en 
this vast nation of the unemployed may ye 
be added to the Sloat erowing list of thi 
world’s producers.”’ , 

The African, while subjected to the con 
ditions of American slavery, proved hii 
ability to work with continuous regulariff 
and in many respects intelligently. Tho s( 
conditions involved compulsion and guid 
ance, and on some rare occasions furnishet 
a stimulus that proved an inner ae 


1 Geography and Atlas of Protestant Missions, 451. 


Industrial and Economic Progress 109 


‘o labor. The results of this last were al- 
vays marked. But when all his wants 
vere met, with nothing to gain or to lose 
dy a greater or lesser effort, he only 
yorked when compelled, and escaped that 
ompulsion whenever it was_ possible. 
Suddenly and entirely set free from this 
sompulsion, it is not surprising that a little 
ime was needed before he realized the 
sompulsion of his needs as an incentive to 
voluntary effort. That the whole race is 
10t yet so fully dominated by this incentive 
is to leave no vagrants and idlers among 
hem is a patent fact to even the most cas- 
al observer ; but to one who gives a closer 
study will be revealed a great host of 
barnest, faithful laborers whose industry 
s being rewarded by the full supply of 
ife’s necessities and, with many, by the 
‘ecumulation of property. 


Negro’s past life of which we have any 
mowledge, attention is now directed to his 
resent condition, with its indications of 
mdoubted progress during the half-cen- 
ory of his freedom. 


status of the Negro in America, it is well 


Having noted the three stages of the Undoubted 


_ As a first step in studying the preaeren, Weatios at 


Nearly all in 
uth 


ie 


110 The Upward Path 


to note the number and distribution of the 
race in continental United States. ne 
twelfth census of the United States (1900) 
places the total number of Negroes 2 
8,833,994, distributed as follows: 


Division Population Per cent. of — 
total negro pop. 
North Atlantic 385,020 4.3 
South Atlantic 3,729,017 42.2 
North Central 495,751 5.6 
South Central 4,193,952 47.5 


Western 30,254 0.3 ° 


This table shows that 89.7 per cent. 
the entire Negro population resides in th 
fourteen Southern States, leaving only 
10.3 per cent. to be scattered over the 
whole of the remainder of the United 
States. More than half of that (5.7) are 
in the States of Pennsylvania, New York, 
Ohio, and Ilinois—and are largely segre 
gated in the four large cities of those 
States. In thirty of the States, out of 
every one hundred people, only three are 
Negroes: 2nd in eighteen of these Stat 
there ai. less than one to the hundr 
while in two Southern States there a 
more than fifty-eight Negroes to forty-twi 
whites, and in none of them does the pr 


0 SS a ei 


Industrial and Economic Progress 111 
sortion fall below nineteen in every hun- 
jred, except in Kentucky. 

In 1880 there were 6,580,793 Negroes in 
shis country. In twenty years there was 
in increase of 34.2 per cent. The race has 
10t merely maintained its numbers but 
shows a marvelous growth. Since the cen- 
sus of 1900 was published nearly another 
lecade has passed, and calculating the in- 
srease in the Negro population to be in the 
same ratio as in past decades the number 
s now estimated to be not less than 
10,000,000. 

The Negroes, constituting about one 
rinth of the total population, form only 
ibout one fifteenth of the urban popu- 
ation and more than one seventh of the 
‘ural population. They are relatively less 
mumerous in the large cities than in the 
owns. Among the five Southern cities 
aving at least 100,000 inhabitants, the 
iighest per cent. of Negroes is found at 
Memphis (48.8), Washington (31.1), New 
Yrleans (27.1), Louisville (19.1), and 
Baltimore (15.6). In a group of Southern 
ities having between 25,000 and 100,000 
here are four having a higher per cent. 
chan any of these—ranging from 51.8 to 


Marvelous 
Growth in 
Population 


Rercenmanol im 
Cities and 
Gaiintes 


The 
Southerner’s 
Problem ”’ 


112 The Upward Path 


57.1. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, it is 58.5, 
Twelve cities in Georgia having betwee 
4,000 and 8,000 inhabitants have 48.2 pei 
cent. of their combined population Negro, 
Washington has a larger per cent. of Negre 
population than any other city in the coun, 
try (86,702). They are relatively most 
numerous in Washington County, Missis, 
sippi, ‘being 94.2 per cent. of the whok 
population. In South Carolina, Missis: 
sippi, and Louisiana more than half of the 
country population is Negro. This distri 
bution varies according to local conditions 
and as time goes on there is a growing in: 
crease of Negroes in the larger cities 
Since the census of 1900 there may be @ 
very material difference in these figures 
But the trend of the Negro in the South 
to the city is less than that of the white 
race. 

A glance at the figures showing the dis. 
tribution of the Negro race in the Unitec 
States demonstrates that whatever prob. 
lem his presence presents, it is primarily 
‘< the Southerner’s problem,’’ and must be 
worked out in the South. Those figures 
also demonstrate the fact that after forty 
years of free access to other parts of the 


Industrial and Economic Progress 113 


xountry and with no restraints upon his 
novements the Negro has chosen as a race 
*o remain in the South. That he has so 
thosen is proof that the social and eco- 
aomic conditions in the South are such as 
make it more desirable for him to remain 
there than to go elsewhere. 

| Edgar Gardiner Murphy says, in his 
' roblems of the Present South: ‘‘ The 
broad and living decisions of great masses 
of men possess a dumb but interesting sig- 
mificance. They are never wholly irra- 
ional or sentimental. The Negro remains 
at the South because among the primary 
and the secondary rewards of honest life, 
fe gets more of the primary rewards at 
the South than at the North. . . . The Ne- 


S 


Zoods business, the grocery, the livery, the 
real estate, and the wood and coal busi- 
mess; as well as in the business of running 
errands and blacking boots. He is a shoe- 
maker and carpenter and blacksmith. He 
s where there is anything to do, and if he 
2an do it well, he is usually treated fairly 
and paid for it honestly. Except in profes- 
Sional capacities and as an undertaker he 


Me 


The Negro’s 


Opportunity in 
the south 


Discrimination 
in North 


114 The Upward Path 


is employed by all—white and black—h 
does business with all. The South gives to 
the Negro something more merciful than 
sentiment-and something more necessary 
than the unnegotiable abstractions of so- 
cial rights. The South gives to him the 
best gift of a civilization to an individua 
—the opportunity to live industriously 
and honestly. 

‘‘ The race prejudice in the Meath first 
forbids to the Negro the membership o: 
the labor union, and then forbids to the 
employer the services of non-union labor 
If the employer turn wholly to non-union 
men, he finds that rather than work beside 
the Negro these usually throw down theit 
tools and walk out of the door of factory 
or shop. And so the dreary tale proceeds 
The Negro at the North can be a waiter 
in hotel and restaurant (in some); he can 
be a butler or footman in club or house 
hold (in some); or the hair-cutter or boot. 
black in the barber shop (in some) ; 
and I say ‘in some’ because even 


1The American Federation of Labor in its constitution forbids 
the exclusion of any one on account “‘ of creed, eolor, sex, nation- 
ality, or politics,’ but many National and Local Unions affiliated 
with the American Federation of Labor do exclude Negroes by 
constitutional provision. At this time, however, there are a larger 
number of Negro members of trade-unions than ever before. 


Industrial and Economic Progress 115 


the more menial offices of industry are 
being slowly but gradually denied to 
him. And what is the opportunity of such 
an environment to the development of self- 
dependence, what is the value to his labor 
of so inadequate and restricted a market 
for the complex capacities and the legiti- 
mate ambitions of an awakening manhood. 
. . . What are the possibilities, there, of 
self-respect, of decency, of hope? What 
are the possibilities of bread? 
_ ‘The economic problem lies at the very 
heart of the social welfare of any race. 
The possibility of honest bread is the 
noblest possibility of a civilization; and it 
is the indispensable condition of thrift, 
probity, and truth. No people can do 
what is right or love what is good if they 
eannot earn what they need. . . . The 
South has sometimes abridged the Negro’s 
Tight to vote, but the South has not yet 
abridged his right in any direction of hu- 
man interest or of honest effort to earn his 
daily bread . . . this lies at the very basis 
of life and integrity—whether individual 
or social.’’? 

Dr. W. E. B. DuBois in his pam- 


1 Murphy, Problems of the Present South, 184, 185, 187. 


Opportunity to 
arn Honest 


Bread 


Northern Cities 
Destroy Negro 


eae pilty of 
ning Greater 
in South 


Importance 
of Realizing 
Progress 


116 The Upward Path 


phlet, ‘‘ The Philadelphia Negro, A So. 
ciological Study,’’ describes how the slow, 
silent, pitiless operation of the social and 
economic forces are destroying the Negra 
body and soul in the Northern city. 

The Principal of Tuskegee says on this 
subject: ‘‘ It is in the South that the black 
man finds an open sesame in labor, indus. 
try, and business that is not surpassed 
anywhere. It is here that that form of 
slavery which prevents a man from selling 
his labor to whom he pleases on account of 
his color is almost unknown. We have ha 
slavery in the South, now dead, that orl 
an individual to labor without a salary, but 
none that compelled a man to live in idle 
ness while his family starved. it the 
Negro would spend a dollar at fis opera, 
he will find the fairest opportunity at the 
North; if he would earn the dollar, his fair- 
est opportunity is at the South. The op- 
portunity to earn the dollar fairly is of 
much more importance to the Negro just 
now than the opportunity to spend it at the 
opera.’’ 

When we consider the great host of 
Negroes living in our land, and which will 
surely become greater, and how they are 


| 


, ~<a 


| Industrial and Economie Progress 117 


affecting now and will affect still more in 
| the future the life and civilization of our 
' country, it becomes a matter of vital in- 
' terest to the whole nation, and especially 
the South, to know, beside its growth in 
numbers, what has been the progress of 
this race in other matters. 
| Much has been said about the white 
South hindering the progress of the Negro, 
based upon circumstances long since 
passed, upon insufficient knowledge of his 
present status, and upon half-truths 
greatly exaggerated by unconvinced and 
unconvincible prejudice. Not enough con- 
sideration has been given to certain simi- 
lar conditions that exist in every country 
and among other races. The struggle be- 
tween capital and labor, with its contrast 
between the rich and the poor; the usual 
features of poverty, ignorance, disease, 
and sin; the inefficient laborer and the un- 
employed, are problematic conditions and 
their manifestations are to be found in the 
North without reference to race. In the 
South the Negroes for the most part do the 
common, rough labor and, although the de- 
mand for skilled labor is growing ever 
greater, the vast majority of them remain 


Poverty of 
ring Class 
Univ 


Rapid Economic 
Progress 


South not 
Opposed to 
Negro’s Progress 


118 The Upward Path 


unskilled laborers. These, as everywhere 
receive low wages, and they form a lar 
number of the unemployed that will not 
or cannot work. These conditions tend t 
poverty of the laboring class everywhere. 

Putting aside all preconceived ideas of 
the Negro’s handicap in the South, let a 
few simple statements of his economic 
progress speak for themselves, and decide 
if it is fair to the Negro or his ‘‘ brother 
in white ’’ to continue to represent him as 
‘¢ evil-entreated ’’ or ‘‘ a debased, poverty- 
stricken people.’? These will show that, 
as a laboring class, he is as industrious, ca- 
pable, and successful and his condition as 
good as that of any similar class in any 
other country. That the mass of the race 
falls below its best is just as true of him 
as of others, but from the mass is grad- 
ually developing a larger and larger num- 
ber of the better and the best classes 
more rapidly than in any country in Eu- 
rope—vastly more rapidly than in some of 
them. 

Booker T. Washington, when asked i 
the white man in the South wanted th 
Negro to improve his present condition, 
answered promptly, ‘‘ Yes.’? And after 


Industrial and Economic Progress 119 


citing instances manifesting their interest 
in the Negro’s education and progress, 
says: ‘‘Such marks of the interest in the 
education of the Negro on the part of the 
Southern white people can be seen almost 
every day. Why should the white people, 
by their presence, words, and many other 
things, encourage the black man to get edu- 
cation, if they do not desire him to improve 
his condition? ’’! Again he says: ‘‘ While 
‘race prejudice is strongly exhibited in 
many directions, in the matter of business, 


of commercial and industrial development, 
there is very little obstacle in the Negro’s 
at . . . Exaggerated reports are writ- 
ten by newspaper men, who give the im- 
‘pression that there is a race conflict 
throughout the South, and that all South- 
-ern white people are opposed to the Ne- 
gro’s progress, overlooking the fact that 
| while in some sections there is trouble, in 
‘most parts of the South there is a very 
large measure of peace, good-will, and mu- 
tual helpfulness.’’ 2 

_ In 1860 all of the Negroes of working 
age and in health were engaged in some 


_kind of occupation, the gains of which were 
i 1 Washington, The Future of the American Negro, 236, 237. 
2 Ibid., 207. 


Occupation 


Encouraging 
Progress 


120 The Upward Path . 
equal to their maintenance in all the neces- 
saries of life. This we have seen extended 
to such as were not capacitated for labor 
on account of age and sickness. The 
census of 1900 gives the whole number 
of Negroes over ten years of age as 
6,415,581, and the number over ten years 
of age engaged in gainful occupations as 
3,992,337. There are twenty-seven occu- 
pations that each give employment to more 
than 10,0001. In all other occupations 
there were only 185,329. No statement is 
made of the number unemployed. Fifty- 
two per cent. of the whole specified under 
different heads, were engaged in agricul- 
ture, and of the half million “ laborers ’” 
(not specified) it is probable that many 
were agricultural laborers. 

‘* Of those engaged in agriculture, nine- 
teen per cent. were farmers, planters, and 
overseers. These have risen from a low 
level to a higher level in their occupation 
and in American civilization. I might 
show how the Negro agricultural laborer 
of exceptional ability has become share 
tenant, then cash tenant, then part owner, 
and finally full owner with almost light- 


1 Strong, Social Progress, 1906, 174. 


St. PauL NoRMAL AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, 
LAWRENCEVILLE, VIRGINIA 


FARMERS’ CONFERENCE, 


LAWRENCEVILLE, VIRGINIA 


Industrial and Economic Progress 121 


ning rapidity and against fearful odds. 
. . . In the South Central States since 
1860 Negro farmers have come to operate 
‘as owners and managers 95,624 farms and 
as tenants 348,805. . . . In forty years 
287,933 Negroes have acquired control of 
farming lands in the South Atlantic States, 
of whom 85,355 are owners or managers. 
The total value of Negro farm property is 
conservatively estimated at $230,000,000. 
These facts spell progress unmistak- 
ably.’’1 

To this value of farm lands Bishop 
Arnett adds the value of live stock and 
farming implements and brings the total 
value to $4,941,235. The acreage owned 
in Georgia and Virginia alone he gives as 
2,107,438 acres.2, The United States census 
places the total number of acres owned 
and partly owned by Negroes at 15,996,- 
098. Many farms are very small and the 
soil poor and unproductive. 

We find that next to agriculture the oc- 
eupations which give employment to the 
largest number of Negroes are the kindred 
ones of servants and waiters, launderers 


and laundresses, housekeepers and stew- 


1 Strong, Social Progress, 1906, 174. 
2 Ibid., 175. 


Value of Farm 
_ Equipment 


Domestic 
Servants 


Mine and Miil 
Employees 


122 The Upward Path 


ards, janitors and sextons. These com= 


bined claim 708,470. Of course this covers” 
many grades of work, yet in the main they 
may be classed as domestic service. There 
is a great falling off in the efficiency of 
household servants since emancipation, 
and as the years go by this inefficiency in- 
creases. The cause of this is readily ex- 
plained by contrasting the fine trainin 
given by antebellum mistresses in all do-| 
mestic industries, authoritatively en- 
forced, with the present day total lack of) 


rh) 
5 


poor home surroundings or in the house- 
holds where they are temporarily em- 
ployed by those who are unwilling to be-’ 
stow time and trouble upon those who may 
leave their service at any hour. It is’ 
a rare occurrence when a white person, | 
male or female, goes into domestic service 
in the South. 

About 85,000 Negroes are employed as” 
miners and quarrymen, saw and planing- 
mill employees, tobacco and cigar factory 
operatives. These are practically the only 
employments of this class open to’ them 
except canning factories. In textile and 
other mills where machinery demands reg- 


Industrial and Economic Progress 123 


ular attendance and regulates the move- 
‘ments, they are not considered desirable 
employees. The reasons stated are that 
“they do not feel the obligation to work 
‘if inclination leads them to take a holiday, 
_and they are rarely capable of the sus- 
tained attention and regularity of motion 
Tequired by machinery.’’ However just 
these reasons may be, the fact that they 
are not so employed works to the benefit 
of the race in that many who might be 
working in the unhealthy conditions of the 
-cotton-mills are now in the open field, and 
‘their children are saved from the evils of 
-child-labor which these present, and thus 
have “‘ time for school and play,’’ of which 
hundreds of white children of their age are 
being deprived. 

_ In 1900 the census reports 1,316,840 Ne- 
| gro females engaged in paint occupa- 
Of girls between ten and fifteen 
early one third are at work, between six- 
teen and twenty-four nearly one half, be- 
‘tween twenty-five and sixty-four about two 
‘out of every five. ‘‘ These figures show 
clearly that in the case of Negro women 
Marriage does not withdraw them from 
the field of gainful occupations to any- 


Females in 
ainful 
Ceetouticas 


Employment of 
Mothers Affects 
Children 


Women in 
Agriculture 


124 The Upward Path 


thing like the extent that it does white 
women. . . . A good part of the class be 
tween twenty-five and sixty-four mus 
have been married, as sixty-eight and 
three-tenths per cent. of all Negro women 
between those ages were reported as mar- 
ried.’’} : 
This last fact has a decided effect upon 
the home life and the rearing of children, 
since in a majority of cases the woman 
breadwinner must leave her home, or else” 
her time is so occupied at home as to hin- 
der her from giving the attention required 
to keep her house and children in right con- 
dition. It is also sadly true that in many’ 
instances the man of the family eats ‘‘ the | 
bread of idleness ’’ that has been earned 
by the overworked wife or mother. And in 
some still sadder cases the idle man in the 
home is not a legal husband and holds him-§ 
self in no wise responsible for the caine 
of the family. . 
A lar ge number of Negro women are en-— 
gaged in agricultural pursuits, that is, 
they are employed on the large nishbalionsl : 
as cotton pickers, either directly by the 
owner or as helpers of fathers and hus-— 


1 United States Census, 1900, Bulletin No. 8. 4 


— 


Industrial and Economic Progress 125 


bands who are ‘‘ share tenants.’’ A much 
larger number of women than men are en- 
gaged in domestic service, the latter be- 
ing able to secure more remunerative em- 
ployment in other lines. 

The census for 1900 reports 19,431 Ne- 
groes employed as nurses and midwives, 
the number having increased more than 
‘threefold during the decade, and nearly 

twice as fast as the whites. The position 
of nurse offers a large sphere of useful 
ness to Negro women who are properly 
trained for the profession, though they do 
not often receive the high wages of the 
white nurse. The cost of the latter makes 
the demand still greater for intelligent 
secondary Negro nurses for the invalid 
and convalescent. Southern white women 
are seeking also more and more for their 
: children the care of reliable trained women 
who may somewhat take the place of the 
old-time black ‘‘ Mammy ’’ of blessed 
memory. 
' The number of dressmakers and seam- 
stresses is stated to be 24,106. T'wice that 
number could find employment at good 
'wages if the character of their work was 
better. With but few exceptions it is care- 


: 


Nurses and 
Midwives 


Dressmakers and 
esses 


Mechanical 
Trades 


Progress Despite 


Disadvantages 


126 The Upward Path 


lessly and roughly done and presents a 
untidy appearance. If the teachers of 
sewing classes in industrial schools re- 
quired a higher standard of work it would 
be greatly to the future financial advan- 
tage of their pupils. 

Mechanical trades claim 57,926 as 
carpenters and joiners, brick and stone 
masons, blacksmiths, iron and _ steel 
workers. There was a marked decrease in 
the first-mentioned in the decade of 1890 
and 1900. In some trades the labor unions 
have excluded the Negroes in the South, 
but not to the extent that they have in the 
North, though it is feared that this will be 
extended in the future and may drive them 
out of many trades. | 

‘¢ After emancipation came suddenly, i in 
the midst of war and social upheaval, the 
first real economic question was the self- 
protection of freed working-men. There 
were three classes of them: the agricul- 
tural laborers, chiefly in the country dis- 
tricts; the house servants, in town and 
country; and the artisans, who were 
rapidly migrating to town. . . . These last 
met peculiar conditions. They had always 
been used to working under the guardian- 


| 
‘a 
| 


! 
! 


Industrial and Economic Progress 127 


ship of a master, and even though that 
guardianship in some cases was but nomi- 
nal, yet it was of the greatest value for 
protection. . . . When he set up business 
for himself . . . he could not bring suit in 
he name of an influential white master; 
f there was a contract to be made there 
was no responsible white patron to an- 
swer for the good performance of the 
work... . At first the friendly patronage 
of the former master was given the freed- 
nan and for some time the Negro mechanic 
aeld undisputed sway. Three occurrences, 
lowever, Soon disturbed the situation: 
1) the competition of white mechanics, 
2) the efforts of the Negro for self-pro- 
jection, (3) the new industrial develop- 
ment of the South. . . . The Negro me- 
shanic did not carelessly throw away his 
arge share of the Southern labor market 
ind allow the white mechanic to supplant 
um. ‘To be sure, the exslave was not 
alert, quick, and ready to meet competi- 
“ion. His business hitherto had been to 
to work, but not to get work, save in ex- 
3eptional cases. As the white mechanic 
oressed forward, the only refuge of the 
egro mechanic was lower wages. Even 


Sor 


eo 


i\ 
) 


| 
! 
| 


Skilled 
Workmen 


128 The Upward Path | 
| 
in this he could not wholly succeed. Th 
new industrial conditions made new de 
mands on the mechanic which the Negri 
was not able to meet. ... He was ignoran 
in those very lines of sao hinaieel and in 
dustrial development in which the Soutl 
has taken the longest strides in the las 
thirty years. Who was to teach him? Thi 
older Negro mechanics could not teacl 
what they had not learned. His white fel 
low workmen were now his bitterest oppo 
nents because of his race and the fact tha’ 
he worked at low wages. . . . And yet the 
Negro mechanic has had a greater success 
in earning a living than the condition 
might lead one to expect.’’ 

The carpenters are the largest body oi 
skilled working-men and there are 20,80( 
in the South. The States differ chasiden 
ably in the proportion of different kinds o: 
working-men: steam railway employee‘ 
and carpenters lead in Virginia, the Caro 
linas, and the Gulf States; iron and stee 
workers outnumber all but railway men it 
the mining state, Alabama, and the ma 
sons and stone-cutters are numerous i 
Tennessee. The great Northern cities ar 


1 DuBois, The Negro Artizan, 21-23. 


Industrial and Economic Progress 129 


conspicuous for scarcity of black artisans, 
while in the more typical Southern cities 
they are to be found in large numbers. In 
| the Border State cities they are working in 
some of the important skilled occupations. 

It is hard to say what the future holds 
for the Negro artisan. In many places he 
is in large demand, and works at the same 
wages as the white man. This is said to 
be especially true of the State of Texas. 
But unfortunately in many trades they do 
inferior work and lose out; even many of 
those who have had training in industrial 
schools prove unequal to actual work. 
They do not want to ‘‘ begin at the bottom 
and work up.’’ Nor can the employer al- 
ways depend on them. ‘‘ It does not mat- 


complete the job, he [the Negro workman] 
feels under no obligation that will hinder 
him from taking ‘a day off’ for pleas- 
ure. That’s his idea of liberty.’’! 
Alexander Hamilton, Jr., a Negro con- 
tractor of Atlanta, Georgia, has a flourish- 
ing business, and some of his patrons are 
among the best people of the city. Last 
year he did about $35,000 worth of work, 


1E. H. Holmes, Prairie View Normal School, Texas. 


Future of 
Negro Artisan 


ter how anxious a contractor may be to ; 


Personal 
Example and 
Testimony 


130 The Upward Path 


He says: ‘‘ The opportunity for wage earn, 

ing for the Negro artisan is good; he ix 

always in demand. This demand does no} 
exist because he works for a lower wage 
for as a rule they get the prevailing scale 
of wages. Some white contractors employ 
Negroes from the foreman down. He is 
considered a swifter worker than the 
white, though in many cases he shows é 
lack of intelligent conception of the work 
he is to perform and of pride in its execu. 
tion. Good work, faithfulness to contract 
gains a reputation that secures good 
wages.”’ 

cassonomic += ‘The Negroes have manifested in various 
ways their desire and ability for economic 
cooperation. Many failures have attended 
their efforts, but their many successes 
have brought not only present advantage 
but prophesy greater benefits for the fu- 
ture. This codperative effort had its be- 
ginning where we might expect to find it— 
in the Church (the independent Churches’ 
established by the free Negroes in the 
North), and found its first expression in 
the Church benevolent societies. It soon 
made an effort to extend itself into the’ 
school, but in the early days met with much 


Industrial and Economie Progress 131 


indrance here; later a large success has 
veen reached. Along with the growing so- 
jal consciousness of the race there has 
isen to large proportions the beneficial 
md insurance societies. ‘‘ No complete 
secount of these is possible, so large is 
heir number and so wide their ramifica- 
#ion. Nor can any hard and fast line be- 
fween them and industrial insurance so- 
ieties be drawn save in membership and 
Hxtent of business. These societies are 
ilso difficult to separate from secret soci- 
bties; many have more or less ritual work, 
jmd the regular secret societies do much 
sraternal insurance business.’’ 

| The majority of the benevolent societies 
ire purely local and their work limited to 
the payment generally of from $2.50 to $5 
¥or initiation fee and fifty cents dues 
jnonthly, and the paying out from this 
fund of sick dues, varying from $1.50 per 
tveek to $5, and burial expenses of the mem- 
ders. These societies have been organized 
Dy the hundred, and many of them serve a 
jz0ood purpose. They frequently have long 
jand some of them curious names. Regalia 
yf all kinds is worn, and the society hav- 
ing the most of it is generally the most 


Berevolent 
Societies 


132 The Upward Path 


popular. Many of these have died out or 
been absorbed into larger societies having” 
more of the nature and management of in- 
surance societies. The larger Negro in 
dustrial insurance societies now operating) 
form a list of sixty-four, with many smaller 
ones. If a complete report could be had 
of even the one State of Virginia, it would” 
show that more than 300,000 colored men f 
women, and children carry some form of 
insurance. q 
True Racaion lhe True Reformers constitutes prob= 
ably the most remarkable Negro organiza- 
tion in this country. It was organized in’ 
1881, by the Rev. William Washington’ 
Brown, an exslave, of Habersham County, 
Georgia, as a fraternal beneficiary institu- 
tion, composed of male and female mem- 
bers numbering one hundred, and a capital 
of $150. It was to be a joint-stock com- 
pany, with shares of the value of $5 each. 
The Grand Fountain of True Reformers 
is now a mutual insurance association hav- 
ing 2,678 fountains, or lodges, with more 
than 100,000 members, of whom there are 
now benefited in the Fountain 50,636. It 
has a ‘* Rosebud Department ’’ with more 
than 30,000 children. The death benefits 


Industrial and Economic Progress 133 


paid by all departments up to date have 
been $1,356,989, with over $1,500,000 in sick 
benefits. Its total annual income is put at 
$450,000. It has put into operation a sav- 
ings-bank, with a capital stock paid in of 
$100,000 and a surplus fund of $95,000. It 
incorporated a mercantile and industrial 
association that conducts a system of stores 
doing an annual business of over $100,000 
and publishes a weekly paper, The Re- 
former, that has a circulation of 19,000 
copies. It has opened a hotel in Richmond 
that accommodates a hundred and fifty 
guests, has established an old folks’ home, 
with a farm of over six hundred acres, and 
has incorporated a building and loan asso- 
Ciation that has as its object the encourage- 
ment of industry, frugality, home building, 
and saving among its members. Its real 
estate department has under its control 
twenty-seven buildings and three farms 
valued at $400,000, which belong to the 
institution, and leases twenty-three other 
buildings. 

The total income of this class of societies 
cannot be far from $3,000,000, and their 
real estate and other capital probably 
amounts to $1,500,000. The chief criticism 


Advantages and 
Disadvantages of 
Societies 


Secret Societies 


134 The Upward Path 


of all these societies is the unscientific ba= 
sis of their insurance business, neverthe 
less there are signs of improvement, 
‘‘ There is also wide room for peculation 
and dishonesty in industrial insurance, 
Protective legislation, especially in the 
South, is driving out the worst offenders, 
but some still remain. On the whole, how. 
ever, these societies have done three 
things: (1) encouraged economic codpera- 
tion and confidence, (2) consolidated small 
capital, (3) taught business methods.’’! ~ 

Among the secret societies, the Free Ma> 
sons report, in 1899, 1,960 lodges with é 
membership of 55,713, property valued at 
$1,000,000, and an income of about $500,- 
000. The Odd Fellows report, in 1904, the) 
number of lodges as 4,643 with a member- 
ship of 285,931. Its property is valued at 
$2,500,000, and over $1,000,000 was spent 
between 1900 and 1906 in its benevolences. 
In 1905, the Knights of Pythias had 1,536 
lodges witht 69,331 members, property voll : 
ued at $321,919, and in the two previous 
years spent in its relief work $124,146. 
This order has an insurance department. 
The United Brothers of Friendship, i 


1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 12. 


Industrial and Economie Progress 135 


1905, had a membership of about 75,000 
and valued their property at $500,000, with 
large amounts expended in benevolence. 
‘The order of Elks did not organize until 
1899, and in eight years they reported 61 
lodges with 5,000 members. The Grand 
Order of the Galilean Fisherman was or- 
ganized in 1856, and has at least $250,000 
worth of real estate. Besides these there 
are many smaller secret societies having 
he same general purpose as the larger or- 
ders—the care of the sick, burial of the 
dead, and relief of the poor. From the 
figures given it seems that the Negro se- 
ret orders in the United States own be- 
tween four and five million dollars worth 
of property and collect each year at least 
$1,500,000. 

_ Cooperative benevolence finds its mani- 
festation in between 75 and 100 homes and 
orphanages supported wholly or largely 
by Negroes. Some of these are well-pro- 
vided for and well-managed; many of them 
meed much in every way. There are about 
forty hospitals conducted by Negroes, in- 
cluding the Freedmen’s Hospital of Wash- 
ington, District of Columbia, which the 


1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 12. 


Codperative 


Benevolence 


136 The Upward Path 


government supports. Nearly every tow 
in the South has a colored cemetery owned 

and conducted by Negroes, making a tote 
of probably about 500. 
Negro Banks Jn 1865, the national congress incor 
porated the Freedmen’s Savings and 
Trust Company. Through ‘‘ speculative, 
indiscreet, and culpable transactions,’’ the 
bank failed, in 1874, entailing disastrou 
losses upon the ignorant, trusting, need} 
Negroes amounting to over $3,000,000 
After this disgraceful swindle the Negré 
went to banking for himself, and there are 
now in the United States forty-one Negr¢ 

banks, many of them doing a flourishing 
business. } 
Coaperative The history of codperative business 
among the Negroes is long and interesting, 
Of some it is simply a record of failure, bui 
failure is often educative, as it has been 
in this case, and leads to better, wiser ef- 
fort. While there have been hundreds of 
codperative business ventures of various 
kinds that have failed, there are hundreds 
that continue in operation with a measure 
of success. 
Real estate and credit societies have re- 
sulted in Negro settlements in towns, some 


Mound Bayou, 
Mississippi 


' 
Industrial and Economic Progress 137 
lof which have had fine success. Among 
‘these is Mound Bayou, Mississippi, which 
lwas incorporated in 1890. The town em- 
braces about seventy-five acres of land, is 
well laid out, with plank walks, and has a 
population of 400, many living in neat 
homes., It is surrounded by a neighbor- 
ing population of about 3,000, who occupy 
their own farms, ranging from 200 to 600 
acres each, and comprising altogether 30,- 
000 acres, producing a variety of crops but 
chiefly cotton. There are over forty busi- 
ness establishments, and the total value of 
business amounts to almost three-quarters 
f a million dollars. There are eleven 
ereditable public buildings, including two 
graded schools. 
| The Farmers’ Improvement Society of 


as been of great benefit to many of the 
Negroes of that State. The members are 
ledged (1) to fight the credit or mortgage 
system, (2) to improve the method of 
arming and care of stock, (3) to codperate 
im buying and selling, (4) to care for the 
sick and bury the dead, (5) to bzy and im- 
prove homes. The effect of the movement 


1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 12. 


Farmers’ 
Improvement 
cie 


Texas, organized by R. L. Smith, in 1890, Society 


138 The Upward Path 


to break up the credit system was § ; 
marked that in six years other commun ! 
ties were induced to accept the plan 
Branches are established in about 400 dif. 
ferent communities in Texas and Okla 
homa. A great improvement has resulted 
in the character and conduct of the farms 
and homes, in agricultural fairs and lee 
tures, and the establishment of an agric L 
tural and industrial college. : 
BusinessMen Tn five medium-sized Southern cities 
there are 160 Negro business men. In on¢ 
of these, Houston, Texas, there are 41 
with a capital of $237,450 invested in thei 
business. Two of these, a building con 
tractor and a real estate broker, have be er 
in the same business for thirty years, ant 
eleven have held their own for over fifteer 
years. In Richmond, Virginia, nine busi 
ness men have an invested capital 01 
$230,500. ; 
Undoubted = ‘With such an array of facts, who cal 
doubt the progress of the Negro in indus 
trial life and pursuits? | 


Am: To Learn How THE NEGRoES HAvE PROGRESSED 


1, 


13. 


14. 


INDUSTRIALLY AND EcoNomiIcALLY SINCE THEIR 
EMANCIPATION 


What conditions of the past, in Africa, in 
American slavery, and the first years of free- 
dom, has the Negro been obliged to overcome? 
Did the Anglo-Saxon race rise suddenly? 

How many years has it taken the Anglo-Saxon 
to reach his present condition? 

What are some of the advantages and disad- 
vantages that the Negro has had compared 
with the Anglo-Saxon? 

Why have the majority of the Negroes re- 
mained in the South? 

Do you think that they will continue to remain 
in the South, and why? 

Compare the advantages, economically and in- 
dustrially, that the Negroes have in the South 
and the North. 

Where are the physical conditions more favor- 
able? 

To what extent can the people in the North aid 
in helping the Negro? 

Why are the cities especially destructive to the 
physical life of the Negroes? 

Do the cities have an equally bad effect upon 
the other races? 

Do the women and children among the poor 
Negroes suffer any more than among the poor 
of other races under similar conditions? 

In what occupations do the Negro men and 
women find the most employment, and why? 
What is the chief value of the societies organ- 
ized among the Negroes? 


140 


REFERENCES FOR FurRTHER Stupy.—CHAPTER TV* | 


Industrial and Economic Conditions Among the Negroes 


10On this chapter and those that follow the religious periodical 


15. 


16. 


ie 


18% 


19. 


20.* 


m4: 


The Upward Path , 


What are the conditions that must be consi 
ered in estimating the progress of any race} 
Enumerate all the evidences of industrial 2 
economic progress among the Negroes. 
In view of the past conditions do you belie 
that the Negroes have made substantial prog 
ress? State reasons. | 
How may the Negroes make themselves mo 
useful in the industrial and economic syste 
of our country? 
Sum up the chief hindrances to more rapid 
progress among the Negroes. a 
What can the whites both North and South dj 
to assist the Negroes to improve their indus 
trial and economic conditions? 


Baker: Following the Color Line, Part I, IV._ 
Galloway: ‘‘ The Negro as a Business Man, 
World’s Work, June, 708. : 
Miller: Race Adjustment, 179-198. 

Park: ‘‘ Agricultural Extension Among 
groes,’’ World To-Day, Aug., 708. 
Sinclair: The Aftermath of Slavery, VIII. © 
Smith: ‘‘ The Upliftmg Negro Co-operatiol 
Society,’’ World’s Work, July, ’08. ; 
Stone: Studies in the American Race, Part I 
DVS Me 
Washington: ‘‘ The American Negro of 
Day,’’ Putnam’s Magazine, Oct., ’07. 


and home mission magazines will be found helpful. Other publica 
tions such as the ‘‘ The Southern Workman,”’ ‘* Atlanta University” 


and ‘‘ American Academy of Science”? should be consulted. 


strial and Economic Progress 141 


‘Washington: ‘‘ A Town Owned by Negroes,’’ 
World’s Work, July, 707. 

Washington: ‘‘ Negro Homes,’’ Century Maga- 
gine, May, ’08. 

Washington and DuBois: The Negro in the 
South, II, III. 


“ 


Thirty years ago, when I was a boy in Georgi 
central city, one part of the suburbs given over to 
groes contained an aggregation of unfurnished, ill-kep 
rented cabins, the occupants untidy, and for the mos 
part shiftless. Such a thing as virtue among the femal| 
members was in but few instances conceded. Girls fron 
this section roamed the streets at night, and vice wai 
met with on every corner. Recently, in company with ; 
friend who was interested in a family residing in thi 
same community, I visited it. I found many familie 
occupying their own homes, flowers growing in the yar 
and on the porches, curtains at the windows, and an aii 
of homelike serenity overflowing the entire district. Ih 
the house we entered, the floors were carpeted, the whitt 
walls were hung with pictures, the mantels held bric-a: 
brac. In one room was a parlor organ, in another a sew: 
ing-machine, and in another a piano, where a girl saj 
at practise. In conversation with the people of the house 
and neighborhood, we heard good ideas expressed in ex: 
cellent language and discovered that every one with whom 
we came in contact could read and write, while many 
were much further advanced. Just one generation | 
between the two conditions set forth, and the chan 
may be said to indicate the urban Negro’s mental and 
material progress throughout the whole South. Of those 
who see only gloom ahead for the Negro, the question 
may be fairly asked, Where else in the world is there a 
people developing so rapidly? The men who have pur- 
chased these houses, the women who keep them, have 
achieved a higher standard of citizenship, and the reac- 
tion on their descendants has, so far as their influence is 
operative, helped to free the streets of vice. So far ag 
this community is concerned, one great stride toward the 
elevation of the race has been taken and the pace set. 


—Harry Stillwell Edwards 


Peet pees ee SS 


V 


SOCIAL CONDITIONS 


HE Negro in Africa had no knowledge 
4 of a home, except as a shelter from 
the elements and his enemies, physical and 
spiritual. The home of the American 
slave, though often dear to him, lacked of 
necessity some of the essentials of a true 
1ome, yet from it and his contact with the 
+ home and home life of his owner he formed 
an ideal, however dim, toward which he 
| was to struggle when his circumstances 
were changed. As a freedman the Negro 
‘was practically a man without a home, a 
people without a social form, a race with- 
out a country. 

iY From the crudest elements, blended of 
p overty and ignorance, desire and hope, he 
began to construct a new standard of life 
nd form about himself certain social 
‘forms by imitating what he saw the white 
people have and do. Possibly he was not 
always able to distinguish between the 
good and bad examples set before him, or 


+ 
\ 


History of 
Home Life 


Advance in 
Home Life 


Moving Onward 


Results of Home 
wnership 


146 The Upward Path 


chose the latter because it was easier 
human nature, but he also chose in inn 
merable instances the best things which 
has learned how to do by doing; and out of 
his persistent efforts a home and social life 
is being evolved that, far from perfect as it 
yet may be, shows a great advance beyo 
his past, a ee step in his onward way 
toward Christian civilization. 

The white man’s laws and moral stand. 
ards, his counsel and helping hand, have 
all aided the Negro in his progress, but the 
best part of his achievement, and that 
which makes it most worth while, has come 
through his own courageous, patient seek- 
ing for that which was best as far as he 
knew it. Mistakes, failures, offenses have 
come, as needs they must, but undismayed 
he is still moving onward. 

‘‘ The white or black man, by the sweat 
of whose brow a home has been bought, 
is by virtue of that act an infinitely better 
citizen.’’ The increased sense of self- 
respect that comes with such ownership 
leads to a deeper sense of obligation for 
the protection and maintenance of the 
home and the character of family life. It 
also brings an increased sense of responsi- 


Two Houses OwNED By A NEGRO, IN ONE oF WuHIcH HE LivEs. 


CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA 


NEGRO CABIN 


SE a sr en 


, 
bilities for the public good and of personal 
| advantage in the preservation of law. All 
| this is becoming more and more manifest 
| among the better class of Negroes who are 
of course the home owners. 


Social Conditions 147 


With this view of the case, it is of great 


importance in our study of present-day 
 eonditions to consider the growth in num- 
_ ber and character of the homes of the Ne- 


gro race. We have seen his need of such 


| preparation for and experience in citizen- 


ship to fit him for an intelligent apprecia- 


tion of not only the privilege, but the re- 
' sponsibility of the ballot-box. If the loss, 


in a large measure, of this privilege has 


turned his attention from politics toward 
_home-building it was a blessing to him as 


well as to the country. He felt and still 
feels afflicted by the laws restraining his 
franchise, but as he comes by degrees into 
possession of the required qualifications, 
and by an intelligent use of his political 
rights when gained manifests his just 
claim to them, he will wipe out the infamy 
that attaches to his first deplorable effort 
in the political arena. In that day he will 
understand yet once again that ‘‘ God 
meant it for good.”’ 


Qualifying 
for Political 
Rights 


Number of 


Homes as 
Safeguards 


148 The Upward Path 


We have noted the large number of 
farms that are owned by the Negroes 
which of course in practically every in 
stance means a home to each farm. .Be 
sides these rural homes, there are a still 
larger number in the towns and cities. The 
whole number of homes owned by Negroes 
is stated as 372,414. Of these 255,156 are’ 
known to be absolutely free from encum 
brance. The character of these homes 
varies from the few handsome residences 
of the wealthy class, and the second-grade 
of neat, comfortable houses of the well-to- 
do laboring class, to the one-room cabin in 
the country or the dilapidated cottage in” 
town or city. Comparing the number of 
homes of all kinds with the whole Negro 
population, it will be seen that the ‘‘ home 
owner ”’ is still a small class, and that the 
great mass of the race is as yet homeless” 
or housed in rented tenements on the farm 
or in the city, or living in the homes of em- 
ployers. y 

Booker T. Washington says: ‘‘ An in- 
creasing number of Negro homes have 
gone along with an increasing sense of im-_ 
portance of the safeguards which the home 
throws about the family and of the house- 


= 


Ha 


7 
| 
! 
i 
1 


Social Conditions 149 
hold virtues which it encourages and 
makes possible. . . . In every Southern 
‘eity there is a Negro quarter. It is often 
a cluster of wretched hovels, situated in 
the most dismal and unhealthy part of the 
eity. They all have the same dingy, dirty, 
God-forsaken appearance. These are the 
places that are usually pointed out as the 


i 


Negro homes. 


‘¢ But in recent years there have grown 
up, usually in the neighborhood of a school, 


small Negro settlements of an entirely dif- 
_ ferent character. Most of them are modest 
cottages, but they are clean... and 
‘havea wholesome air of comfort and thrift. 


_ . Within you will find an air of de- 


_ cency and self-respect, pictures and books. 


_ . These are the homes of the thrifty 


laboring class who generally have some 


education. Some of them have gone 
through a college or industrial school, and 
their children are at school. . . . In the 
same communities you will find other 
homes, larger and more comfortable, many 
of them handsome modern buildings with 
all the evidences of taste and culture that 
you might expect to find in any other home 
of the same size and appearance. If you 


a 


Homes of the 
Thrifty 


150 The Upward Path 


should inquire here, you would learn that 

the people living in these homes are su 
cessful merchants, doctors, and teachers. 

. . They are not usually recognized as 

Negro homes. | 

Hanae? ~—-‘* Still handsomer houses here and ther ae 
Homes are to be found. The fact is that white men 
know almost nothing about this better 

class of homes. They know the criminals — 

and the loafers, because they have dealt 

with them in the courts, or because they - 

collect rent from the places where they 
congregate and live. They know to a cer-_ 

tain extent the laboring classes whom they 
employ, and they know something, too, of 

the Negro business men with whom they — 

have dealings; but they know almost noth- } 

ing about the doctors, lawyers, teachers, 

and preachers, who are usually the leaders — 

of the Negro people, the men whose opin- — 

ions, teaching, and influence are, to a very 

large extent, directing and shaping the — 

healthful, hopeful constructive forces in — 

these communities. | 

pumuence of “Tn the sections where the influence of 
uskegee such schools as Hampton and Tuskegee is z 

‘a felt you will find a marked growth in re- © 
/ cent years not only in the size of the home © 


| Social Conditions 151 
—rarely ever one room—but in its neat ap- 
“pearance within and without, having out- 
Tf and fences in repair and white- 
washed. Notable instances of this may be 
‘seen in Gloucester County, Virginia, where 
a large number of Hampton students have 
‘settled, and in Alabama around Tuskegee 
and in Calhoun County. 

‘«¢ The average person who does not live 
in the South has the impression that the 
Southern white people do not like to see 
Negroes live in good homes. Of course 
there are narrow-minded white people liv- 
ing in the South as well as in the North 
and elsewhere; but as I have gone through 
the South, and constantly come into con- 
_ tact with the members of my race, Tam sur- 
_ prised at the large numbers who have been 
helped and encouraged to buy beautiful 
homes by the best element of white people 
in their community. I think I am safe in 
saying that the sight of a well-kept, at- 
' tractive home belonging to a Negro does 
not call for as much adverse comment in 
the South as it does in the Northern 
' States.’’? 

Dr. Edward Gardner Murphy in writing 


1 Washington, Century Magazine, May, 1908. 


White People 
Encouraging 
Negroes 


Wholesome 
Home Life 


152 The Upward Path 


of the Negro home life says: ‘* All promis¢ 
and all attainment are worth while, but the 
only adequate measure of social efficiency 
and the only ultimate test of essential rac 2 


ment of the idea and the institution of the 
family, of the family as accepted and hon- 
ored under the conditions of Western civil- 
ization, that we are to seek the real criti - 
cism of Negro progress. . . . His heritage 
has given him but small equipment for the 
achievement of his task. And yet the Ne 
gro home exists. That its existence is, in 
many cases, but a naive pretense, that Ne- 


i 
; 
| 
yt 
* 
| 


Mi 


ae 


moral—of our accepted marital conditions, 
is evident enough. And yet those who 
would observe broadly and closely will 
find a patiently and persisently increasing 
number of true families and real homes, a ; 
number far in excess of the popular esti- { 
mate, homes in which with intelligence, 4 
probity, industry, and an admirable sim- 4 
plicity, the man and the woman are creat- t 
ing our fundamental institution. Scores of — 
such homes, in some cases hundreds, exist 7 


Social Conditions 153 


an numbers of our American communities 
_ exist for those who will try to find them 


and will try sympathetically to know them. 
‘But one of the tragic elements of our situa- 
tion lies in the fact that of this most hon- 


erable and most hopeful aspect of Negro 
life the white community, North and 
‘South, knows practically nothing.”’ * 


Tt has been the pleasure of the author to 


enter some of the true homes of old-time 
eolored friends and it is now a privilege to 
bear personal testimony to the honest, re- 
| spectable, wholesome family life lived 


therein. They are homes where parents 


_are seeking to rear and train their children 
aright, and to make their aims high and 
their ambitions noble. The men have an 


honest pride in the achieving of a home 


and the women seek to make those homes 
attractive for their families and an influ- 
ence for good. In many of these homes the 
young girls are shielded from the many 
' temptations and dangers that come to 
their race and sex in going out to service. 


One mother said: ‘‘ Knowing what I know, 


| I prefer to keep my daughters in my home, 
_ though their wages would be a help to us. 


1 Problems of the Present South, 166. 


Efficient 
Home Life 


154 ""he Upward Path 


If they stay at night where they work, they 
are not always protected; if they come 
home at night, that means they are late 
and very early on the street unprotected.’? 
The quality of these homes and the care of 
the girlhood of such families may serve as 
a partial reason why it is not always the 
most desirable class that go out to service, 
and may suggest some changes in the con- 
ditions and requirements of service. It 
does not follow that these women live in 
idleness. They do the work in their own 
homes. Many take in sewing or go out to 
sew by the day. Some teach or enter upon 
other employments for which their measure 
of education qualifies them. 

Home Training = There are, however, very many so-called 
homes where the worst conditions prevail, 
and the greatest lack of the race as a whole 
is proper home surroundings and training. 
In many instances this comes from igno- 
rance or viciousness of the parents, in 
others from that poverty that takes both 
parents away from home to work and 
leaves the children to ‘‘ run wild ”’ in the 
worst section of the city and to learn all 
the evil of the street. 

Much as has been achieved by the race 


f ; | Social Conditions 155 


in owning and making homes, the great 
vack is still in the home life and the end to 
which their chief energies should be di- 
“ected, through church, school, societies, 
and clubs, should be the bettering of ene 
ife. The home is the heart of Christian 
ayilization. From it flows the life-blood 
of a race or nation. The center of the home 
s the woman, and its existence for good or 
yad depends largely upon her as wife and 
nother. Therefore the right education and 
aining of the Negro woman is of the 
sreatest importance to the future of the 
ace. If she be imbued with the sanctities 
f life, she will keep herself and her home 
jure and clean. If she be taught the dig- 
uty of labor and trained to do her duty in 
he practical thi-gs pertaining to a real 
tome, she will make it more desirable to 
er family than an evil outside life. If she 
e taught to appreciate aright the sacred- 
ess of motherhood and the proper care of 
ter children, she will send forth noble sons 
nd daughters. 

The Negro is eminently social in his 
ature. As a race he loves to congregate 
sd to communicate. He naturally loves a 
srowd, whatever may be the occasion for 


Woman Center 
of Home 


Love of 
Social Life 


156 The Upward Path 


bringing it together — an excursion, 
church service, or a circus, a wedding, or 
a death-bed. His pliable emotions fit them- 
selves to any occasion with wonderful 
facility, and reach a state of excitement 
with alacrity and enjoyment. | 
Social Nature This social nature leads them to segre- 
Segregation oate in town or city where there is quick 
access to each other and opportunity to 
talk—either in gossip or quarrel. It makes 
it far easier to secure Negro labor in em- 
ployments where a large number work to- 
gether. It often hinders regular work and 
steady gains. The irresistible attractions 
of an excursion will draw the laborer from 
his work and together with his whole fam- 
ily he will spend on it all he has saved. 
Elimination of With education and * growing refine- 
Customs ment and restraint resulting from it, we 
see in the better class a gradual elimina- 
tion of the emotional excitement attendant 
upon the old social customs. Indeed, there 
may be too great a tendency to imitate the 
formal etiquette and half-hearted manner 
which the Anglo-Saxon shows in his efforts 

at enjoyment. 
rowrerand Social distinctions have led to the 
formation of a class spirit as well-defined 


Social Conditions 157 


in the Negro race as in the white. There 
lis the upper class and the lower classes. 
Strange to say, this brings about a peculiar 
state of affairs. The lower classes resent 
the effort of their own upper class to make 
a social inequality within the race, al- 
though they accept their inequality with 
the better-class white people for whom 
they work. The first-class white people as 
a general thing know better and prefer the 
Negro servant class to those of ‘‘ colored 
‘society ’? rank. On the other hand, we find 
the latter class brought into closer associa- 
tion with the poor, laboring class of the 
white race residing nearer to them, who, 
while clinging tenaciously to white su- 
‘premacy in sentiment, admit them in a cer- 
tain way into social relations. 

The ‘‘ society ’’ circle of colored people 
‘have their handsome or pretty homes 
‘opened for the same kind of entertain- 
ments that white people have, and extend 
‘their hospitality as generously to their 
‘own set; and, in proportion to their means, 
‘these entertainments are made as attrac- 
| tive by the fine dress of the women, the 
‘floral decorations, the well-served menu, 
and the character of the music. Their par- 


Society Circie 


Mixed Blood 
and Full Blood 
Negroes 


class distinction based on color that i 


Educational 
Social 
Advantages of 
Mixed Blood 


158 The Upward Path 


ties, their weddings, their funerals, are 
made as nearly as possible like those of the 
white people, and in some instances the 
could not be distinguished from them ex 
cept by the color of the participants, an 
sometimes that is not very marked. 

There is a point in the social life of thi 
Negro that is difficult and delicate to ham 
dle. The Negroes recognize and so do thie 
Southern white people a condition whic 
forms an inner problem to the much-dis 
cussed ‘‘ Race Problem.’’ And this is th 


drawing apart the mixed blood from th 
full-blood Negro. There are no define 
rules governing this classification, becaus 
of its varying degrees, and there are man} 
deviations from the line even when ther 
is a marked difference to one side or th 
other. Yet that line is growing more ant 
more evident in both social and religiou 
life. 4 

As a general thing those that continu 
their education beyond the common schoo 
are those of mixed blood—the nla 
quadroons, and octoroons. This grows ii 
a large measure out of the eliminating 
process wherein the mentally fit survive 


Se ee ee 


Social Conditions 159 


3ut there are other contributory causes 
hat have a large effect. The Negro mother 
ften feels great pride in her half-white 
hild because of the beauty and intelli- 
ence it frequently possesses, and feels am- 
itious for it to rise in the world, therefore 

re care is taken of its appearance and 
reater effort is made to secure its educa- 
on than if it were black. It is frequently 
ot so strong physically as the black child, 
nd is, as much as possible, shielded from 
ne hardships of life. This is more es- 
ecially true of the girl. All these things 
nd a result in the character and life of the 
nild. Often the outcome is good as far 
5 its own attainments are concerned, but 
ith its advantages there comes the natural 
seling of superiority over the less favored. 
Like likes like ”’ is the proverbial basis 
t all social life. These favored, educated, 
uccessful people of mixed blood are by far 
ie largest element of the select social cir- 
e@—an upper-tendom that more or less 
fishes to avoid association with the real 
brother in black,’’ but cannot. In some 
ings the law of ship ldrid) holds. duemioase- 
ther, in others the still more difficult 
ws of relationship. 


160 The Upward Path 


Mixed Blood in = A visit to almost any of the Negro i ins 
Circles tutions of higher education will furni 
proof of what has been said in the fact thi 
the large majority of the pupils, especi 
of the girls, are light-colored. There < 
also what they call. ‘‘ tony ’’ churches 
which can be seen very few black face 
and the same thing may be noted in mai 
of their high-class social entertainmen’ 
This color-line is not so distinctly dra 
but that the full-blooded, well-educat 
professional or successful business mai 
and his wife, may find entrance. Nor 
the line drawn strictly on education ai 
worthiness. The light-colored beauty, m 
or woman, who assumes a certain style ¢ 
dress and manner may be found there, ar 
‘‘no questions asked.”’ 
Class Distinctions © These distinct classes in the Negro soe 
toRace life are far more frequently found in tk 
city than in the country, and in some citi 
more than in others, and this may ms 
from the different degrees of educatio 
advantages to be found in different local 
ties. It may well be said that class di 
tinctions that divide the educated from 
uneducated, the rich from the poor, are 
be found among all civilized people 


Social Conditions 161 


ranted, but the point here is that yet 
nore aad more the higher class among the 
Vegroes is being made up of the mixed 
ylood, and this social drawing away of the 
“high class ’’ from the ‘‘ masses,”’ if color 
e the cause, while the individual cannot 
ie blamed, is resulting in several ways to 
he detriment of the race. For although 
here are a large number of mixed blood 
rho are the children of parents who are 
oth mulattoes and are born in wedlock, 
great number are half white, and are, 
herefore, in all the Southern States ille- 
itimate. Thus it would seem that a pre- 
lum is put on amalgamation resulting 
om immorality. 

It must not be understood from what has 
een written that those of mixed blood are 
Il superior to the full-blood Negroes, for 
pme of the worst, most stupid, most dan- 
erous elements of the race are to be found 
mong them. While they preponderate in 
ae higher schools and higher society, these 
epresent but a small proportion of the 
thole race, or even of the mixed blood, of 
thom it is estimated there are 3,000,000 
b the United States. The general results 
f amalgamation have proved it to be an 


Evil Results of 
malgamation 


True Leaders 


162 The Upward Path 


evil for both races, and therefore bo 
should do all in their power to preserv 
race integrity. ; | 
There is a still higher class, though % 
much smaller one than the ‘‘ society set” 
—true leaders who are doing their par 
nobly toward helping others who hay 
been less fortunate. Among these may b 
found men who are principals of colleges 
and teachers, physicians, lawyers, minis 
ters, graduates of colleges, North 2 
South. There are also women of mean 
refinement, and culture who are spendin 
time, strength, and money for the uplift ¢ 
the women of their race who need thei 
help. These feel that they must keep i 
touch with the men and women whose ai 
vantages and opportunities have not bet 
as great as theirs, if they would save t 
race. May we not hope that as the influe 
of this class extends, it will counteract 1 
evil arising from prejudice and resentm 
caused by other conditions and prove to 
the bond that will draw together in lo} 
and helpfulness the jarring elements | 
their own race, and be ready to codpera 
with men and women of like minds in t 


white race who would seek a righteo 


Se 


- NOGONIHSVM ‘\L YaMoog: 


NUMOG “GH “M “f 


Social Conditions 163 


dlution of the race problem. It is hoped 
le at this spirit of codperation may increase. 
No discussion of the social life of the 
Fee © would be complete without consid- 
@ the National Association of Colored 


rious affiliated clubs that include in their 
hembership at least 10,000 women. While 
ee object of these clubs, to a certain ex- 


ix at Eealenthropic and charitable. They 

e formed of the leading women of the 
e and represent the best class intellec- 
gally as well as socially. These are the 
omen who most fully realize the condi- 
on of the mass of their people and, feel- 
a a keen responsibility for its better- 


as — been for ee in those commu- 
ui ies where conditions are favorable, and 
here is every reason to believe that a 
larger sphere and better results lie before 


National 
Association of - 
Colored Women 


“ Lifting as We 
Climb "’ 


164 The Upward Path 


it in the future. The organization gr 
out of the ‘‘ felt need of united and sy 
tematic effort,’’? and the hope of furnis 
ing ‘‘ evidence of moral, mental, and m 
terial progress made by the [Negri 
people.’’ Its object is to secure ‘‘ harmo 
of action and codperation among all w 
men in raising to the highest plane, hor 
moral, and civil life;’’ and its motto, ‘‘ Li 
ing As We Climb,’’ shows how the work 
to be done. 
Wide Range of = ‘Mrs. Booker T. Washington, vice-pret 
dent at large of the National Associatio 
writes in a personal letter: ‘‘ I think o} 
thing about the colored women’s clubs) 
perhaps a little different from those of t 
white women—we are necessarily mo 
practical. We are running sewing class 
cooking classes, plantation schools, carr 
ing on reading-rooms, building up schoo 
and like objects.’’ The report of the Tt 
kegee Club, which numbers seventy-fot 
shows great activity along all lines for t! 
general development of the club wom 
themselves and in the help they rend 
others. Its literary topics are fine and st 
gestive; its charity is well-directed; its 1 
stitutional work in sections where this 


Social Conditions 165 


auch needed is resultful; its religious and 
emperance instruction is given in the jail, 
he school, and in the mothers’ meetings. 
fhe mothers’ meeting is perhaps pro- 
uctive of more good than any other 
wranch of the work, since it deals directly 
vith the home life of which the mother is 
ways the center, the chief influence for 
7ood or for bad. The talks and discus- 


and its preparation, character of 
othing, physical health, moral standards, 
hrift and well-directed economy, and the 
nfluence of the mother’s life and teachings 


More numerous than the women’s clubs 
we the mutual benefit societies, with 
fany varying names and objects. These, 
roperly conducted, are a great blessing, 
‘specially among the poor, day-laboring 
Mass, who are often without friends who 
Yan be of the least assistance in times of 
listress and sickness. They have also their 
focial features, and through them furnish 
fespectable entertainment and amusement 
lo supplant much that would degrade. Be- 


Mutual Benefit 
Societies 


Crime Among 
Negroes 


Character of 
Crime 


166 The Upward Path 


sides these, there are many church sot 
eties that have social features, and are ii 
many ways beneficial both to the wom 
composing them and to those who receivi 
help from them. | 
The Negroes, while forming about om 
eighth of the whole population of th 
United States in 1890, were responsible fo 
nearly one fifth of the crime. Accordin; 
to the twelfth census, there were in th 
United States 57,310 prisoners; of these 
25,019 were Negroes—a number thre 
times as great in proportion to population 
as that of the native whites, and one andi 
half times as great as that of the foreign 
born white. The figures also show that ii 
proportion to the Negro population ther 
are more criminal Negroes in the Nort 
than in the South, eight tenths of them 
ing in the South, where nine tenths of t 
Negroes dwell. This may be explained bj 
the fact that those in the North live almos 
entirely in the cities, while in the Sout 
the vast majority are in the rural distric 
In both races the criminality of the ci 

far exceeds that of the country. 
Of the Negro prisoners in the State vel 
tentiaries, city or county jails, and work 
P 


i 


. 


Social Conditions 167 


jouses or houses of correction, the men 
irgely predominate. Half of them are be- 
ween the ages of twenty and thirty, and a 
fth between the ages of ten and nineteen. 
he figures show a lower criminal age than 
mong the whites, and the crime of most 
{these youthful offenders is stealing. If 
mmitments were tabulated, undoubtedly 
ih ering would be found to be preémi- 
ently the Negro crime. One fourth of the 


Jegro prisoners are confined for crimes 


Beinst the person. This consists of fight- 


> 


ug and quarreling, which end at times in 


omicide, and also the crime of rape. One 
th of the prisoners in jail are charged 
ath crimes against society, such as 
abline, drunkenness, adultery. 

No one can go into a Southern city or 
pwn and fail to notice in certain sections 
ind large number of idle, ragged, dirty Ne- 
roes, and every village and wayside rail- 
jay station has its quota. These are in a 
irge measure vagrants—though an occa- 
‘onal ** job’? may save them from the 
agrant law—and their only steady occu- 
ation is the game of ‘‘ crap-shooting.’’ 
; does not take a very strong temptation 
» make one of this shiftless class a crim- 


Crime Due to 
Lack of Home 
Training 


Race Traits 
__ Determine 
haracter of 

Crime 


Vv 


168 The Upward Path 


inal. To feed such as these many an hon 
wife or mother wears her life out at # 
wash-tub, and to protect them from pt 
ishment she would perjure her soul, or |; 
down her life. Yet without doubt many @ 
them are what they are because of the e\ 
influence and the lack of moral training ° 
miserable homes, where the immoral liv 
of wife and mother are on the same plai 
as their own. 

Broadly speaking, the same causes th 
tend to poverty, ignorance, and crime, i 
every land and among every people, are} 
be found among the Negroes. Closer 0 
servation reveals certain race traits al 
inherited tendencies manifested in tl 
character of crimes committed. The N 
gro is emotional and is easily influenced 1 
evil; his passions are strong and he lad 
in self-control; his judgment is poor and } 
does not quickly discern the logical s 
quence of cause and effect; while immed 
ate gratification blinds him to the pen 
consequences of his act. Add to these igno 
rance, drunkenness, resentment, or cupi 
ity, and the criminal is accounted for—th 
homicide, the ravisher, the thief. ; 

Judge W. H. Thomas, of Montgomer} 


Social Conditions 169 


labama, says in his admirable treatise on 
aw and License: ‘‘ It is noteworthy that 
ae Negro in the South does not kill 
ae white man, nor the white man the Ne- 
ro, as often as the Negro kills the Negro. 
_. . Unfortunately the Negro holds with 
0 little regard the life of his colored 
eighbor when angered by him.’’ In re- 
donse to an inquiry made of the chaplain 
f the Tennessee penitentiary, he said: 
More than two thirds of the Negro pris- 
mers here were convicted for crimes com- 
hitted while angry.’’ A great wrong is 
one the Negro by his enemies, his mis- 
nken white friends, and the ill-advised 
embers of his own race, who by printed 
>spoken words play upon the emotions of 
he Negro so as to produce resentment, for 
nat soon grows to hatred that may at any 
homent become violence. 

| Strong drink and exciting drugs have an 
ven more fearful effect upon the Negro 
pan upon the white race. When he is 
munk, what little self-control he has 
arned from being forced to check his pas- 
lons is swept away, and he becomes a 
murderer or a lustful animal, regardless 
F consequences. Much, very much of the 


Crime Committed 
while Angry 


Drink Increases 


170 The Upward Path 


Negro’s worst criminality has been th 
result of whiskey or, worse still, of a he 
rid, adulterated gin especially prepa 
and labeled to excite his worst passions. 
Poverty the Poverty walks a close companion ‘ 
Much Crime erime, Not only are the large majority ¢ 
all criminals poor, but poverty with 1 
concomitants is the basal cause of tl 
crimes of many. The poorest class in tl 
South is largely composed of Negroe 
The idle, unemployed class who will ni 
work, or are unable to find work that the 
can do, become either loafing dependen 
on others of their race, or thieves. In tl 
homes of poverty there are insanitary al 
immoral conditions affecting both t 
moral and physical life. There often 1] 
worst vices reign unchecked and unshame 
and many arrests result from riotous | 
havior, brawls, and often murder. Ch 
dren growing up in these homes and t 
streets and the alleys adjacent to them a 
corrupted in their infancy, and before th 
reach maturity they have been added 
the criminal class. 
Heinous Tt is not well to enter into any discussi 
of the heinous crime of rape, or its punis 
ment. Only those who live at a distan 


Social Conditions 171 


( 
| 
| 
I 
| 


nd have never realized its daily and 
ourly terror can discuss it dispassionately. 
inly those whose lives have never touched 
life so wrecked can calmly condemn the 
eonized fury of those who love the victim. 

is only those who have heard and seen 
violence of the mob who can truly de- 


There is a danger often overlooked in 
he administration of the law in the case 
f the Negro—a certain indifference to 
| imes that relate solely to his own race 
ind well-being and which, because they are 
jondoned so often, are increasing to an 
‘larming extent. Chief among these are 
yigamy and marital infidelity. It might 
istonish some to know the prevalence of 
hese evils, and yet how seldom prosecu- 
ion and De aneicnt follows the offense— 
practically in no cases. The calmness with 
ivhich the Negro, male and female, accepts 
lhis evil condition and the indifference 
vith which it is regarded by the white peo- 
ole as ‘‘ the Negro’s way ’’ is a shame 
0 both races, and as long as it is allowed 
jo continue will prove a destructive ele- 
ment in the home and social life. Too often 
the white man, from sentimental reasons 


ipemy and 
Mari 
Infidelity 


Unjust 
Discrimination 
in Courts 


172 The Upward Path 


largely based on the old-time relation 6 
master and slave, stands between the lay 
and a ‘‘ good-for-naught ’? who is being 
tried for a minor offense, and ‘‘ talks o 
pays him out of court,’’ heedless of the 
fact that he will continue, possibly im 
crease, in crime because of the ease wit 
which he has escaped its consequences. 

If the miscarriage of justice and un 
equal administration of the law existed u 
only one section of our country, or wai 
directed toward only one race of people 
the subject would be greatly simplified. I 
partial judges and juries and corruptibl 
policemen were confined to that sectior 
and injured that one race, the rest of tht 
world might well sit in judgment upon tha’ 
unfortunate section. But this is not the 
case. From all over the country—nay, al 
over the world—comes the ery of the pool! 
that there is unjust discrimination made 
in the courts between them and the rich 
We have grown familiar with the phrases 
‘‘' The poor man has no chance with the 
rich when they go to law,’’ ‘* The rich mar 
bribes himself free,’’ ‘‘ It is only the poot 
man who must hang,’’ ‘‘ The rich mar 
pays his fine, the poor man must go to the 


y 
Witty 


‘¢ STONEWALL ”’ JACKSON 


Social Conditions 173 


_workhouse or the chain-gang.’’ And again 
the alien complains that through his ig- 
norance, and often through the prejudice 
against him, he is unable to secure justice 
in the courts. Ignorance, poverty, help- 
lessness, each has its cry against the op- 
"pression and injustice of the world. Itisa 
ie; that ascends unto heaven and will be 
heard. Justice perverted becomes retribu- 
tive, and no man or country can fail to re- 
| ceive sooner or later the evil result of in- 
/ justice. Chancellor Hill, of the University 
of Georgia, of whom the whole South was 
proud, and for whose death the whole 
South grieved, said: ‘‘ The thing which the 
South cannot afford in its relation to the 
Negro race is injustice; all history teaches 
that injustice injures and deteriorates the 
' individual or nation that practises it, while 
en the other hand, it develops and 
| strengthens the race upon which it is in- 
- flicted.’’ 


‘liable or more difficult to classify than 
those relating to birth, death, and disease. 

For this there are many contributory 
reasons; for example, imperfect registra- 
tion, haa % in some States, no registration of 


t 


j 
; 


There is no class of statistics more unre- 4 


ccurate 
Statistics Not 
Obtainable 


ndané are very imperfect and relate only to those 


174 The Upward Path 


births, an unknown or concealed cause of 
death, no report of disease that has not 
resulted in death, and in some sections no 
official report of persons dying without the 
attendance of a physician. (This last is of 
frequent occurrence among the poor in” 
rural districts.) These usual difficulties” 
face one to a very large degree i in consider-— 
ing Negro statistics, owing to the fact tha ie 
the large majority of them belong to the 
poor and ignorant class, from which such 
statistics are most difficult to obtain. : 

From comparing the number of children” 
with the number of women of child-bearing 
age, it is seen that the Negro birth-rate 
exceeds and has always exceeded the white 
birth-rate. t 

The statistics as to insane and defective 


in institutions. From these we gather that 
in 1903 there were in continental United 
States 9,452 Negroes in hospitals and asy-— 
lums. Nearly one third of these were in 
the North and West, a proportion far in 
excess of the relative Negro see 
This may be offset, however, by the fact 
that much of the Nees population in the 
South is in rural districts, where the harm- 


ea ee 


i Social Conditions 175 


Jess insane and defective are kept at home 
‘more generally than in the city. In 1900 
‘there were reported 8,228 blind and over 
5,000 deaf Negroes. 

The colored death-rate greatly exceeds 
the white. For every one thousand living 
‘eolored children under one year of age 397 
died in the city and 219 in the country; 
under five years of age, 132 in the city and 
‘67 in the country. These figures tell a story 
oi ‘‘ theslaughter of the innocents.’’ There 
‘is, however, a great improvement in infant 
mortality during the iast decade. 

Dr. G. Stanley Hall, in his pamphlet, 
“The Negro in Africa and America,’’ says: 
“We find in compiling many medical 
‘studies of the blacks, that their diseases 
are very different from ours. Their lia- 
bility to consumption is estimated at from 
one and a half to three times greater than 
that of the whites. . . . Very striking is 
their immunity from malaria and yellow 
‘fever, which shows a different composition 
of the blood. . . . They have extraor- 
'dinary power to survive both wounds and 
‘grave surgical operations. . . . Cancer 
of the worst kind is rare, as are stone in 
‘gall and bladder, and ovarian tumor. 


Different 
Composition of 
Blood 


Poverty a Cause 
of Mortality 


176 The Upward Path 


There is less insanity, but epilepsy is far 
more common. . . . They are naturally 
cheerful, therefore melancholia and suicide 
are rare. . . . General paralysis, or 
softening of the brain, said never to have 
occurred in slavery, is now sometimes 
found. Their diseases require modifica- 
tions of treatment, so that the training 
of physicians for the two races needs dif- 
ferentiation. . . . Of course, mixture of 
blood brings approximation to pathologi-— 
cal conditions.’’ If this statement be true, 
and the weight of evidence is with the dis- 
tinguished writer, it loudly emphasizes the 
need of physicians who are especially 
trained for the treatment of the Negro, and 
for the peculiar training of the Negro 
physician. | 
There are many causes for the high rate 
of mortality among the Negroes, and not 
the least of these are poverty and igno-— 
rance. ‘‘ All observation goes to show that 
the cities are the hotbeds of crime, misery, 
and death among the colored people. They 
are huddled together, often with two or 
three families in one room. Without em- ‘ 
ployment for more than half the time, they ~ 
are consequently insufficiently fed and 
BA 


} 


Social Conditions AT 


poorly clothed. When sick, they are un- 
able either to employ a physician or to buy 
medicine. At least twenty-five per cent. 
of them die without medical aid.’’ 1 

Not only is poverty the cause of sickness 
_and death, but so also is the ignorance that 
occasions neglect of sickness and preven- 
tion of contagious disease. Add to these 
his superstition and social customs, and 
one may sum up the main causes of the ex- 
cessive death-rate of the Negro. Poverty 
not only leads to the evils stated above, but 
compels residence in the most insanitary 
part of the city, where often the water-sup- 
ply is impure and the drainage bad. It 
prevents proper disinfection of houses or 
the separation of the sick from those in 
health. It compels the laboring man to 
| work under all kinds of exposure and the 
laboring woman. to leave uncared-for the 
sick in her family. Much of the effects of 
all this might be saved by intelligent pre- 
cautions and insistent and quickly applied 
remedies. The large number of still-births 
is caused by the character of labor per- 
formed by the mothers and the ignorant 
midwives who attend them. Later the 


i 
| 
| 
1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 1. 
i 


Ignorance also 
ause of 
Mortality 


‘Diseases Cause 
Poverty 


Social Life 
Spreads 
Diseases 


178 The Upward Path 


babes die from the ignorance of the moth 

ers in feeding and caring for them. Th 

neglect of older children leads to much ex- 
posure to disease, physical and moral—a 
neglect that extends through life. 

It may also be said that much poverty 
and suffering among the Negroes comes 
from disease that might be prevented or 
controlled, or even cured, if they had more 
knowledge concerning the cause, dissemi- 
nation, and treatment of the diseases most 
prevalent among them. They cannot be 
convinced that fresh air or bathing are 
valuable in both sickness and health. They 
hold to the old fatalistie view of consump- 
tion and will take no precaution against 
its infection. Many will not voluntarily 
vaccinate themselves or their children, and 
they resist as far as possible compulsory 
vaccination, though free; consequently 
their settlements are frequently ravaged 
by smallpox and form centers of infection 
to the community at large. 

The Negro’s social nature, together with 
his deficiency in the logical faculty that 
reasons out future results from present 
acts, is also responsible in a large degree 
for the rapid spread of disease among 


Social Conditions 179 


them. They are constantly visiting each 
ther and having all sorts of gather- 
ngs from house to house; visiting the sick 
md attending funerals (no matter what 
she nature of the disease) are regarded as 
aspecially meritorious. Often the sick room 
s a scene of wild religious excitement, 
shared in by the patient and his friends, 
who will crowd around the bed regardless 
of contagion. 
The intelligent white physician often 
ss a large charity practise among the 
oor Negroes, though he has but little hope 
4 his directions being followed. The in- 
elligent Negro physician is often unable 
30 do much charity practise, and in many 
*ases, being poor himself, refuses to attend 
zases where there is no hope of remunera- 
tion or success. 

But there is a species of ‘‘ quack doc- 
tors,’’ both white and black, who appeal to 
the Negro by promising for their nostrums 
mmediate and wonderful effects, and some- 
10w get paid ‘‘ cash down ’’ for their often 
injurious medicines. The universally ad- 
vertised and ignorantly recommended 
“ quack medicines ’’ (especially those of a 
stimulating character) find ready accep- 


Charity Practise 
of White 
Physicians 


Quack Doctors 
and Medicines 


Witch=Doctors 


180 The Upward Path 


tance with the Negro. Without intelligent 
diagnosis of his disease, and governed by 
the most general symptoms, he will take 
bottle after bottle of medicines that injure 
his health, and to purchase them he will 
empty his purse of the money necessary 
to secure the means of health. Unfortu- 
nately this deplorable habit is not limited 
to the N ego. . : 
There is still another enemy that the 
poor, ignorant Negro has to contend with 
and is least capable of resisting—the Ne- 
gro ‘‘ witch-doctor,’’ or ‘‘ conjurer,’’ wh 
still survives after all these years sine 
leaving Africa, and nearly two generations 
of freedom. His practise of both ‘‘ th 
white art ’’ of healing and the“ black art ” 
of destruction continues to find a field i 
the fear and superstition of the lowest 
class of his race. If one of these medicine- 
men pronounces his patient ‘‘ conjured ”’ 
and prescribes the remedy—no matter how 
difficult, disgusting, or foolish—every ef- 
fort is made to carry out his orders as 
closely as possible, to ‘‘ break the spell ”” 
of the enemy that has caused the illness, 
Time, money, reputation, all are sacrificed 


to an amazing degree. So great is the ef- 


Social Conditions 181 


fect of the mind upon the body that a man 
or woman may, without any real ailment, 
pine away and die because he cannot find 
a witch strong enough to ‘‘ break the 
'spell,’’ or rebound into sudden health if 
made to believe he has been released from 
the power of the enemy. A number of cases 
could be recited to show the prevalence of 
this pitiful superstition. Nor is a part of 
this fear of conjurers and their arts 
altogether groundless or imaginary, for 
some of their concoctions are very harm- 
ful, and their knowledge of subtle poisons, 
brought from Africa and handed down to 
descendants, is used in connection with 
their ‘‘ charms ’’ and fetiches to really 
_eause incurable disease. 

Jn dealing with these witcheraft troubles 
any white doctor is at a disadvantage, un- 
less he has some peculiar hold upon the 
love and confidence of the Negroes, for it 
is a part of their superstition to keep such 
‘matters secret from white people. Any- 
thing he might say to discount the power 
of the fetich, or of the witch-doctor, 
‘would be regarded as an expression of 
‘prejudice against the black man, or be- 
cause, as a white man, he could not under- 


Importance of 
Trained Negro 
Physicians 


182 The Upward Path 
stand what belonged to the African. 
Therefore, it is all-important that there 
should be Negro physicians of fine mental 
and moral ability with special training to 
do medical work of a missionary character 
among them. They will feel that the black 
blood of such a man makes him one with 
them in sympathy and understanding. 
They will confide in him, and his unbelief 
in their superstitions will not offend them 
as with the white man. But it will be seen 
at a glance how necessary it is for such a 
Negro doctor to be not only sympathetic 
and scientific, but so deeply grounded in 
the things that be of God that his own mind 
and heart are unenthralled by supersti- 
tion and he has the power to lead his pa- 
tients into ‘‘ the liberty of the children of 
God.”’ 


SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER V 


‘Aim: To REALIZE THE PRESENT SocIAL CONDITION OF 
THE NEGRO AND How Lire May BE IMPROVED 
1. Describe the home life of a Negro in Africa. 
2. What would you miss most in his home life? 
3.* What are some of the things that make possi- 
ble your home life that the African does not 
have? 


13.* 


18.* 


20.* 


Social Conditions 183 


What are some of the incentives to better 
home life that come from ownership? 

Ts it necessary to own a home to have efficient 
home life? 

What is essential to home life in addition to a 
good building and fine furnishings? 
Contrast a typical home among the poor Ne- 
groes with those among the poor of other races. 
How do the best homes among the Negroes com- 
pare with some of the good homes among the 
whites? 

Enumerate some of the chief temptations 
toward sociability among the Negroes? 

How do these effect the progress of the race? 
What are the conditions that produce class dis- 
tinction among the Negroes? 

What are the conditions that produce class dis- 
tinction among other races? 

Do the circumstances that cause class distinc- 
tion differ among the various races? 

What benefits will acerue to the uplift of the 
Negro through the women’s associations and 
other benevolent organizations? 

Among what classes of Negroes is the largest 
percentage of crime? 

What conditions in their history, to some ex- 
tent, account for the character of their crimes? 
Sum up the principal causes of crime among 
them to-day. 

Give several suggestions that you believe would 
check criminality. 

What are the various causes that are seriously 
effecting the physical life of the Negroes? 
What recommendation would you make in a 
community to improve the social, moral, and 
physical conditions? 


184 The Upward Path 


21.* What can you do to help the pry to im. 
prove their social life? 5 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STuDY.—CHAPTER V7? 


Social Conditions Among the Negroes.* 
Baker: Following the Color Line, II, III, VI, 
IX. 
Baker: ‘‘ The Negro in Southern City Life,’’ 
American Magazine, March, ’07. 
Baker: ‘‘ Negro Conditions in the Black Belt,’’ 
American Magazine, July, ’07; Aug., ’07. 
Jones: ‘‘ A Race in the Making,’’ Westminster 
Review, April, ’07. 
Page: The Negro: The Southerner’s Problem, 
IV. 
Stone: Studies in the American Race Problem, 
Part V, Ch. I. 
Washington: ‘‘ Negro Homes,’’? Century Maga- 
zine, May, 708. 


1 Further references will be found in the home missionary 
magazines of the various denominations. 


EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES 


The right education of the Negro is at once a duty 
and a necessity. All the resources of the school shou d 
be exhausted in elevating his character, improving 1 
condition, and increasing his capacity as a citizen. Th 
policy of enforced ignorance is illogical, un-America 
and unchristian. It is possible in a despotism, but peri 
ous in a republic. It is indefensible on any grounds o 
social or political wisdom, and is not supported by 2 
standards of ethics or justice. If one fact is more clear 
demonstrated by the logic of history than another, it 
that education is an indispensable condition of weal 
and prosperity. . . . Ignorance is a eure for nothin 

. . Suppose we close the 30,000 Negro schools of t 
South, what would be the result? Let Dr. Curry tell 
‘* Tgnorance more dense, pauperism more general and 
severe, crime, superstition, and immorality rampant.”” 
We could not survive such a policy. The boasted 
strength of our government institutions could not endure 
the strain. . . ‘ 

I have been at not a little pains to ascertain from 
representatives of various institutions the postcollegia 
history of their students, and I am profoundly gratifi 
at the record. I believe it is perfectly safe to say tha 
not a single case of criminal assault has ever been 
charged on a student of a mission school for Negro 
founded and sustained by a great Christian Sees 
tion. : 


—Charles B. Galloway i 


‘ 
: 
: 
7 
. 
; 
: 


VI 
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES 


civilization, but it is a part of the 
_yery foundation upon which it rests, and 
‘no nation has risen to its highest plake 
that has left its people in ignorance. [Ilit- 
|eracy may be the misfortune of the indi- 
‘yidual, but the country that is content to 
allow illiteracy to prevail within its bounds 
‘when it may be removed proclaims its 
shame to the world and prepares for its 
own degeneracy in the future. Thus the 
| schoolhouse becomes the pivot upon which 
a nation’s fate revolves, and upon its char- 
acter depends the advancement and pros- 
‘perity of that nation. ‘‘ Knowledge is 
power ’’ for good or evil according to its 
‘character and direction, but ignorance 
/means weakness for good and strength for 
| evil. It helps nothing, it hinders every- 
‘thing. 

| The freedman’s need of education was 
apparent, that he must have it to fit him 


DUCATION is not only a demand of Education 


Essential in a 
Nation 


Freedman’s Need 
of Education ~ 


Education that 
Will Fit for Life 


188 The Upward Path 


for the life before him was equally appa 
ent. In the beginning many mistakes were 
made by those who sought to help him 
caused by ignorance of his nature ant 
needs, and overhaste to secure the appear 
ance of education rather than real results 
Not a few of these have been rectified 
proving the value of failure as ‘‘ a step 
ping-stone to better things,’’ and the Ne 
gro has already gained tremendously 
from the educational advantages furnisheé 
him by Church and State. ‘ 
This is not to say that the race has gone 
very far in education; indeed, it has but 
just started to climb the hill of learning 
It signifies much that it has started, and 
will mean still more if, gaining a clearei 
and ever clearer view of the height beyond 
it continues to toil upward and onward 
choosing the best way and the best things 
and wisely rejecting that which experienceé 
teaches is not worth while. The gain that 
will come to the Negro in exchanging igno- 
rance for knowledge will be a gain to the 
nation as well, and especially to those se¢ 
tions where he dwells in largest number 
This does not mean that every man Ol 
woman that has ‘‘ a smattering ’’ of educa: 


* 
: 
4 


Educational Opportunities 189 


ion, or makes a conceited claim to being 
ducated simply because he has been in a 
chool, is benefited or will prove a benefit 
| anybody. Such as these have done much 
iarm in discounting the value of education 
o the race, and awakening prejudice 
igainst it in the minds of many who should 
ave known how to discriminate between 
he true and the false. Nor does it mean 
hat every member of the race is capable 
if receiving the higher forms of education, 
wr is bettered by an attempt to impose 
hem upon him. What it does mean is that 
ery man, woman, and child, black as well 
us white, should ieee an opportunity to 
yain the kind and measure of education 
that will be best fitted to meet the demands 
of individual and race life. 

- That such education should be Christian 
s only to say that it should be true educa- 
ion, which informs, develops, and inspires 
man’s whole nature, spiritual as well as 
mental. The industrious, educated Chris- 
tian Negro is to-day no problem and, as his 
ind increases, will prove a blessing to the 
sountry. The larger the number of Ne- 
groes who remain ignorant, and often 
through ignorance are vicious, the greater 


Educated 
Christian Negro 
No Problem 


190 The Upward Path 


the curse the race will become to itself and 
to others. { 
schodist, Neer, = Only about five per cent. of the Negroes 
in 1860 could read and write. Of tk 
number a minority were among the slave 
the majority were ‘‘ free persons 
color.’’ The former learned what the} 
knew from their owners. The first Negro 
school, or at least among the first, in the 
North was established in New York by 
Elias Neau in 1704. This was principally 
for religious instruction, though other sub 
jects were taught, and was supported by 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gos- 
pel in Foreign Parts. The Quakers 
Philadelphia opened in 1770 a school for 
Negroes which exists to-day. In Massachu- 
setts there was a school supported by Ne- 
groes opened in 1798. In 1820 the Negroes 
of Cincinnati opened a school, and other 
schools were started elsewhere. These 
schools had a struggling life and many of 
them passed out of existence. ‘‘ From 
about 1835 it became general in the North- 
ern States to have separate schools for the 
Negroes. They were usually poorer than the 
schools for whites, worse taught and worse 
equipped, and wretchedly housed. Begin- 


a 


| 
| Educational Opportunities 191 


ing with Massachusetts, in 1855, these 
separate schools have been abolished in 
aearly all Northern States.’’! 

Some few schools for the Negroes 
existed here and there through the South 
defore the war. The first was opened in 
Charleston, South Carolina, in 1774, by 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gos- 
del in Foreign Parts. ‘‘ It flourished 

eatly and seemed to answer their utmost 
needs.’’ In the District of Columbia no 
ess than fifteen schools were conducted, 

inly at the expense of the colored 
deople, between 1800 and 1861. In Savan- 
hah a French Negro from San Domingo 
sonducted a free Negro school—openly 
from 1819 to 1829 and secretly for some 
Sime after. In Maryland, St. Francis 
Academy for colored girls was founded 
by the Roman Catholics in 1829. The sis- 
ers were colored. In North Carolina 
shere were several schools. 
' While the war was yet in progress there 
were ‘‘army schools’’ opened for the 
denefit of the refugee Negroes who flocked 
rom the plantations within the bounds of 

e Federal army. They were principally 
1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 6. 
| 


| 


First Negro 
Schools in South 


a Schools 
During War 


192 The Upward Path 


in Virginia and the Carolinas along the 
sea-coast, and in the Mississippi rivel 
towns. These were sustained then, an¢ 
later, by Northern benevolence and by the 
use and sale of the confiscated property of 
the Southern whites.1 In 1866 when the 
Freedmen’s Bureau went into effect there 
were 740 of these ‘‘ army schools,’’ taught 
by 1,314 teachers, with 90,589 pupils. Th 
pupils ranged in age from wee toddlers tc 
gray heads. The desire to be educatec 
was almost a craze, yet few appreciated 
the time and effort involved in the process 
Some of the older pupils, discouraged a 
seeing themselves outstripped by littl 
children, abandoned the schools themselve 
but urged their children and grandchildrer 
to attend. Others by extraordinary pa 
tience and industry attained their desire 
to read the Bible. 4 
Schools Under When the Freedmen’s Bureau came i 
Bureau took in hand the schools for freedmen al 
ready established and improved them 
They were largely increased in numbéi 
and efficiency, and at the close of its fom 
years of work (1870), General Howard re 
ported 2,677 schools, with 3,300 teacher, 


1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 6. 


NAPIER PUBLIC SCHOOL, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE 


JUBILEE HALL, Fisk UNIVERSITY, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE 


ie 
Pt 


E 
om 149,581 pupils, for which had been ex- 
pended $5,879,924. 

_It has been stated that the South had no 
tee school system before the war. In 
‘860 the South had 27,582 public schools 
vith 954,678 pupils, for which there was an 
imnual expenditure by the States of 
10,269,642. The legislative records show 
hat North Carolina, South Carolina, and 
Jirginia had well-organized systems of 
yublic schools as early as 1811. In fact 
he State system of free public schools 
miginated in the South, and was in opera- 
ion nearly a half century before it was 
idopted by a member of the Northern 
States.t 

| That the South was without public 
jchools in 1865 was the result of the civil 
yar, the most destructive to all interests 
a people that the modern world has 
bver known. There was not only a lack of 
schools but of food and clothing among 
hose best capable of supplying the educa- 
ional needs of the population, white and 
solored. While money was being lavished 
m schools for Negro children, white chil- 
Iren lacked equal facilities. Under the cir- 


Educational Opportunities 193 


th ~ 

| 1Dyer, Democracy in the South before the Civil War, 66-75. 
(| 
f 
\ 
| 


Southern School 
System Before 
War 


War Deprived 
South of Schools 


non Expended 
by South for 
Negro Schools 


194 The Upward Path 


cumstances, it is not surprising that th 
first and best efforts of the white Sout 
were directed toward caring for its ow: 

Yet, between the years 1870 and 1905, the 
sixteen Southern States expended for the 
Negro public schools more than $155,000, 
000. In the year 1905-06, about $9,200,000 
more was expended. The enrolment of Ne- 
gro pupils in public schools is about one 
fourth as large as that of the white, and 
the Negro schools receive about one fiftl 
of the State school funds, or one fifth aj 
much as the white schools receive. Fol 
many years the direct school tax was al 
most entirely paid by the white property 
owners. As the Negroes gain property, 
they pay an ever-increasing amount of the 
direct as well as their part of the indireé 
tax. . 

In addition to the amount expended by 
the Southern States for public schools 
millions more have been given by the 
North for Church and private schools 
principally for higher education. It would 
be difficult to calculate the total of the vas 
sums that have been devoted to Negro edu 
cation by both North and South sine 
emancipation. It would not be an over 


: 
Educational Opportunities 195 
stimate to place it at $250,000,000—a 
laarter of a billion! 


CHARACTER OF SCHOOLS 


‘From the Report of the Commissioner 
f Education for 1906, the following statis- 
es are gathered as to Negro schools: 

‘1. Common schools. Teachers, 27,747; 
upils enrolled, 1,617,998. 

2. Public high schools, 146; teachers, 
31; pupils, 45,037. 

8. Secondary and higher schools other 
van public, 127; teachers, 2,057; pupils, 
00. Of these 25,209 are elemen- 
wy pupils, 14,281 secondary, and 310 are 
lege students. 

‘The majority of the institutions in the 
aird group are maintained by Home Mis- 
on Boards, white and colored. One home 
vission board alone has contributed over 
Bic.o00 to educational work among Ne- 
ss Philanthropic associations and 


dividuals have also contributed largely 

their establishment and maintenance. 
ome of them were founded by the 
inited States government through the 
- s Bureau, and some of them are 


Statistics of 
Negro Schools 


Types of Schools 


Character and 
Grade 


Kind and 
Number of 
Schools Needed 


TLS 


196 The Upward Path 


State institutions. In 1905-6 the gover 
ment contributed $265,640 toward eighte 
of these schools. In all of them the tuiti 
fees and board (though very small 
some) make the Negroes themselves ¢ 
tributors to that extent to their support. 
These institutions are of different cha 
acter and grade. Some of them have maa 
departments. Forty-one are normal © 
have a normal course, with 4,574 stude 
forty have an industrial department, : 
21,622: students, who are being trained 
more or less proficiency in various lines 
industry. Thirty-four are distinctiv 
termed colleges or universities, but ma 
of these have elementary grades. Twent 
one are professional schools, or have pr 
fessional courses, with 1,907 students. T 
property of this class of schools is valu 
at $11,227,303, and they receive an annt 
income of $1,437,480. 
The testimony of many educators of t 
Negro race, white and black, agree as” 
the kind and number of schools needed f 
the race. Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, of Atlan 
University, cannot be accused of partia 
in his opinion upon this subject when 
says: ‘* From a careful consideration 


¥ 
by 


a 


ry 
-~ " 


> 


by jp ‘ is y 


GRADUATING CLASSES, MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE, 
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE 


Educational Opportunities 197 


e facts and of such testimony as has been 
yen, the following propositions seem 


cf The great mass of the Negroes need 
mmon school and manual training. 

2. There is a large and growing demand 
r industrial and technical training, and 
.. schools. 

3. There is a distinct demand for the 
gher training of persons selected for tal- 
t and character to be leaders of thought 
.d missionaries of culture among the 
asses. 

4. To supply this demand for a higher 
aiming there ought to be maintained sev- 
al colleges in the South. 

5. The aim of these colleges should be 
| supply thoroughly trained teachers, 
eachers, professional men, and captains 


industry.’’1 

Pos two important reasons the primary 

4001 should be emphasized as of greater 

Tue to the race than those of higher 
ide, and larger efforts should be made to 

:. their number and efficiency: 

L. It is the opinion of scientists and edu- 

tors of long experience that the Negro 


| Atlanta University Publications, No. 5. 


i 


Importance of 
Primary Schools 


Demand for 
Better 
Equipment 


Need of Manual 
Trainin 


198 The Upward Path > 


child, even more than the white ch 
learns more quickly than one later in I 
and it is well known that lessons in mot 
ity and religion make a deeper impress: 
in early youth. 
2. The chief reason is that the large ma 
jority of Negroes are of the poorer clas 
who will never go beyond the primar 
school, and what is not learned there y 
never be learned, and because these schoi 
will furnish the first stage in the sifti 
process, the separating from the mass 
those who have the mental ability to ma 
it worth while to advance to the hig 
school. 
This emphasis may be given by havi 
better school buildings and more of thi 
in the city and the country. Larger bu 
ings with more classrooms are requir 
There should be more teachers, wi 
smaller classes. There should be longe 
school terms. There should be a demai 
for better equipped, more  intellige 
teachers, who have had such normal trai 
ing as will especially fit them to understai 
and train the children of their own ra@ 
Of prime importance is the need of ma 
ual training in the common schools, inclue 


Educational Opportunities 199 


ig for girls practical instruction in do- 
festic science. The earlier in a child’s life 
fe muscles of the hands and fingers are 
fained to respond to the will, the more 
rely does skilled labor become possible 
| the later years. The value and dignity 
/ manual labor is more wisely impressed 


‘ch work than by much lecturing. The 
fnsciousness of doing good work makes of 
at work a pleasure and incites to an am- 


d and a wiser expenditure than has yet 
en made, especially in the rural districts, 
d so the possibility of much improve- 
ent lies with the future. But it is well 
keep this aim before us and steadily 
ork toward it. 

A first step in that direction is the 
ise and generous gift of Miss Anna 
| Jeanes of $1,000,000 for the use of 
e Negro rural public schools. This 
md was placed in wise, experienced hands 
id will be wisely and intelligently admin- 


More Money 
Required 


Miss Jeanes’ Gift 
for Improving 
Rural Public 
Schools 


200 The Upward Path 


istered. So far the board of trustees h 
devoted its attention to the investigati 
of conditions. It plans to use the intere 
of this fund as far as possible in eneot 
aging Negroes to do more for their | 
schools, and at the same time to do ever 
thing possible to induce the local school 
thorities to do more from the prese 
school funds for the Negro schools thai 
being done in many places. In oth 
words, in the county where the teach 
receives $20 a month, say, for a f 
months’ school, the aim will be to get 
colored people to raise sufficient mone} 
add a month, or a month and a half, 
the school term and the board of trus 
of the Jeanes fund add as much more, pi 
vided the school board will increase thes 
ary to, say, $25, and provided also t 
the teacher is deserving and intellige 
A part of the plan is the elimination as! 
as possible of all teachers who are not 
serving and qualified for the work. 4 
board regards the outlook at present 
hopeful. May we not hope that other fi 
women and men will see the wisdom 
largely increasing this fund, and may 
not also hope that wise Christian men ¢ 


: 

1h 

Educational Opportunities 201 
a 


pmen living in localities where this fund 
to be used will aid in every way possible 
e full execution of the board’s plans? 
| no way can Negro education be better 
lvanced than by improving the rural pub- 
‘schools. The great mass of the people 
re in the country, where there is more 
norance and where there are at present 
e poorest school advantages. 

| he value of the normal school to the 
immon and high schools is beyond compu- 
tion. One may know much and yet be a 
or teacher until he has been taught how 
impart his knowledge. Especially is 
is true of those who would teach children, 
| any who are undeveloped mentally. 
irough these schools many teachers have 
en prepared who are doing gcod work 
day, and it is to be regretted that so 
my other teachers have not had the ad- 
mtage of normal training. But many of 
2m must be fitted for a still broader and 
bre thorough work if they would fulfil 
air whole mission. The course of study 
ould include methods suited to the Negro 
Id, in order to secure the ri .' develop- 
mt of his natural powers, giving proper 
osideration to heredity and environment. 


Normal Schools 
to Train 


Teachers 


202 The Upward Path 


This necessarily involves a practi 
knowledge by the normal teacher of t 
race and its present conditions. If md 
trial features are ever to be introdu 
into the primary and secondary scho 
the normal schools must prepare the 
for them by giving to their future teache 
practical courses in the industrial branch 
that may be taught in the lower schoo 
The fact that all public schools for Negro 
in the South are taught exclusively by N 
groes adds a strong argument for 
maintenance of Negro normal schools” 
the highest degree of efficiency. 
industrial Regarding Hampton and Tuskegee 1 
°o'S stitutes as models of the kind of industr 
schools the Negro needs, too much cant 
be said as to their value both for the pr 
ent and the future development of the ra 
The latter institution is an outgrowth 
the former in that Hampton trained a 
gave to Tuskegee its distinguished pr 
cipal, a man who has proved himself to 
the greatest representative of his r 
The history of these great schools is 
well known to need to be reproduced h 
The results of their work are alre 
manifest, not only in the industrial life 


: 
| 


Educational. Opportunities 203 


e colored people that have come under 
eir influence, but in their mental attitude 
ward life and its best aims, in a new 
sw of the dignity of honest work and 
2 nobility of good work. 

That a man or woman has earned his or 
r education adds tenfold to its value as 
ife force, and if in the earning of it he 
Ss prepared himself to take up a trade 
line of business that will enable him to 
in a living for himself and his family, 
re than half of life’s battle has been 
ight. For every one such there is a 
ice waiting in this world in which he will 
respected and self-respecting, no matter 
at his race or color. 

There are a large number of Negroes not 
e either mentally or financially to get 
real college education, to whom such 
jools are a great and special providence. 
ere should be at least two other large 
lustrial institutions, one in Texas or the 
athwest and one in the Southeast, and 
ir greatest work should consist in train- 
*men and women who can in turn train 
ustrially the great mass of the people in 
vate secondary schools and in the pub- 
schools of city and country. It is there, 


Self-Help 
Develops 
Self=Respect 


Other Industrial 
Schools Needed 


Trade Schools 


Industrial 
Training for 
Wom 


Dignity of 
Honest Labor 


204 The Upward Path 


DS ee eee 


too, that the leaders of great industz 
enterprises must be trained for the fug 
and its needs. 

As a further development of the ind 
trial school must come the distinctive tra 
school that is already in demand for bi 
races. Hampton and Tuskegee are maki 
a near approach to this; and they are‘ 
ing much to create a demand for them a 
are preparing their future instructors. 

The woman side of industrial educati 


*" is replete with meaning both for hers 


and the race. If made truly valuable 
being both skilful and practical, it ¥ 
mean moral as well as physical bett 
ment for herself, her home, and her fa 
ily. If she should be a bread-winner it 9 
insure for her remunerative employme 
Not until we appreciate the dignity 
labor, and learn that every kind of lal 
that supplies a need or looks to the ; 
vancement of humanity is equally hon 
able, will we accept the fact that every m 
owes it to himself and his fellows to devi 
himself to that kind of work for which 
nature he is best fitted. That only is hon 
labor which is the best a man can do. 
only is an honest workman who does wi 


Emory Haus ror Boys, TUSKEGEE, ALABAMA 


O) RUVIDIPEOUIU REDDER po | 
AP 


PARKER COTTAGE FOR GIRLS, TUSKEGEE, ALABAMA 


| i Educational Opportunities 205 


he can do best. Impress these ideas upon 
the childhood and youth of to-day, and the 
effect will be seen in the men and women 
of the future, not only in the increased 
industry of the race but in a wiser 
selection of employment. Ambition means 
effort to become that which is desired, 
and if it appears just as desirable to 
be a skilled mechanic, or agriculturist, 
or railroad builder, as to be a professional 
man, then these occupations will cease to 
appear on a lower industrial plane than 
the professions, and, when they are valued 
as of importance to human life, efforts will 
be made to do good honest work in all of 
them. 

The college course is not to be graded 
higher in practical value to the race than 
industrial training, but it does a work that 
the other cannot do, and supplies as great, 
though a different need. The college must 
be looked to to furnish thoroughly edu- 
cated men and women for teachers in all 
the lower schools, if these elementary insti- 
tutions are to be productive of the best re- 
sults. From thence must come the trained 
men who are to make skilful physicians 
and surgeons, clear-thinking lawyers, and 


Colleges Must 
ahr Trained 
Leader: 


Fewer but Better 
Colleges 


206 The Upward Path ; 


preachers from whose minds have vl 
broken the shackles of ignorance and s 
perstition. These are all a felt need of 
the race and its future evolution depends 
largely on their character and work. To 
deny or withhold such preparation from 
the natural leaders of the race would be to 
dwarf its powers and make it a still 
greater problem to the nation as its num- 
bers increase. John R. Mott says: ‘‘ The 
universities and colleges teach the teachers. 
preach to the preachers, and govern the 
governors. They are the strategic points 
in civilization. As go these institutions of 
higher learning, so go the nations.’’ 

Some changes should be made in this 
class of schools. Dr. DuBois asserts that, 
out of the thirty-four Negro colleges exist- 
ing in the South in 1900, only about ten 
were needed to accommodate the pupils 
that should continue a college course, and 
then leave large room for growth. He sug- 
gests that twenty-two of the smaller insti 
tutions leave off their college departments 
and develop into normal or industrial 
schools, allowing the college work to be 
concentrated in the ten large institutions. 
This would secure better equipment, create 


! 
| Educational Opportunities 207 
. higher standard, and save much criti- 
cism.? 

| Following the college, come the profes- 
sional schools. The number of these could 
not definitely be learned, but their nearly 
three thousand students and graduates tell 
of the work that is being done. In every 
city and in many towns throughout the 
South these men are to be found in the 
court-houses, the pulpits, and the sick 
Tooms, each in his place and each accord- 
ing to his ability helping to fulfil and guide 
the destiny of his people. 

Dr. G. W. Hubbard, Dean of the Ma- 
harry Medical College, Nashville, Tennes- 
see, says, in the Southern Workman: 
“ There is an urgent need of an increased 
number of Christian Negro physicians in 
the South. In addition to their work of 
ministering to the sick, their services 
gould be of incalculable value in giving 
eC people instruction in the observance 
of the laws of health and in providing com- 
fortable homes for themselves. They 
‘would also be able to teach them by pre- 
cept and example to lead pure, noble, and 
upright Christian lives. . . . The great 


{| 
i 


2 Atlanta University Publications, No. 5. 
H 


Professional 


Demand for 
More Negro 
Physicians 


Central 
University 


208 The Upward Path | 


proportion of the graduate Negro _ 
cians are located in the large cities ant 
towns, few being found in the country dis 
tricts. . . . The relations that hav 
existed between the white and the colore 
physicians of the South have been mos 
commendable. The colored have beet 
treated with courtesy and respect by th 
white medical profession. They have bee! 
given all needed assistance in seriou 
cases and difficult surgical operations 
There is less friction between the races i 
the practise of medicine than in any othe: 
part of industrial or professional ae 
tivity.’’ 

As a climax to Negro education it has 
been wisely suggested that a great centra 
university should be established in one o: 
our large cities, where there would be am 
ple opportunity for the students, while ac 
quiring the necessary theoretical instruc 
tion, to study actual conditions among the 
masses, as well as among the best clas: 
of Negroes. Washington City or Baltimors 
or Atlanta would be a favorable location 
It should be a kind of educational labora: 
tory, a university of practical investiga: 
tion for all lines of life. 


-, 


' Educational Opportunities 209 


‘The requirements for entrance should be Resyivements 
naturity, intelligence, education, morality, ** ¥°™ 
nd a consecrated zeal that leads the stu- 
lent to devote his life to the elevation of 
is people. These students should, as far 
is it is possible to human nature, banish 
Il race prejudice and sensitiveness from 
heir minds and make an honest study of 
he race life of the Negro and its traits and 
haracteristics from the standpoints of an- 
hropology and psychology. They should 
so acquaint themselves with the history 
ind development of the race since its com- 
ng into America, weighing fairly and im- 
yartially all contrary statements and opin- 
ons. They should not content themselves 
vith printed accounts of present conditions 
n the city and in the country, but make 
irst-hand investigations and close personal 
study of the different phases of life. They 
should know of the demoralizing social 
svils, and devastating diseases, the mock- 
ary of religion in some of the churches, and 
the gross practises among some of the 
alergy. They should also know how, out 
of and over all these hindrances, many 
members of the race have come victorious 
to a high plane of life; and, with this 


The Negro Best 
Adapted to 
Train His Race 


Differences to be 
onsidered 


Four Racial 
Groups 


210 The Upward Path 


knowledge, they should take heart ang 
hope to fight the evils that are tendi 
toward the destruction of the great ign 
rant mass. bt 

The Negro, out of his subjective con. 
sciousness, knows that which pertains F 
his own race—knows it as it is difficult 
yea, well-nigh impossible for the Cau 
casian race to know it—and men so trang 
should be far more capable of training the 
Negro brain, of meeting the needs of hi 
physical life, and of responding to his spit 
itual nature than the white man, be he ever 
So wise and sympathetic. That there are 
Negro men capable of receiving and noblj 
using such training has been abundantly 
proved. $ 

In any training of the Negro mind, con- 
sideration should be given to the different 
racial elements that inhere in the whole 
race; and to the natural endowment, the 
history, and the environment that differen- 
tiate the Negro race from the Caucasian. 

The American Negroes when closely in- 
vestigated and studied are found to form 
four racial groups. (1) The true Negro, of 
whom there are several types — Guinea 
Coast, Hottentot, and Bushman—consti- 


te mee 


Educational Opportunities 211 


‘tute the majority of those in the South. 
These types have distinctive characteris- 
tics, and vary in mental ability and possi- 
bilities of elevation. (2) The Hamitic Ne- 
gro—Bantu, Zulu, and Kaffir—is found in 
fewer numbers throughout the whole coun- 
‘try, but most frequently in Virginia and 
the Carolinas. (3) The Semitic Negro— 
Sudanese and Dahomian—is found in 
smaller numbers than any other class. (4) 
The Caucasian Negro—mulattoes, quad- 
Toons, and octoroons—are found in in- 
creasing numbers throughout the whole 
‘country, but predominant in proportion to 
their numbers in the North. 

_ Many Hamitic, Semitic, and Caucasian 
Negroes have fine minds and naturally be- 
come the leaders of their people. The 
Hamitic Negro is warlike and dominant in 
Africa and also in America among his own 
people. The Semitic Negro has a gentle, 
placid nature and is especially adapted to 
domestic life. 

The Caucasian Negro is of too recent 
origin to get the necessary perspective for 
‘a fair estimate of race type, but many in- 
dividuals of this class indicate great pos- 
sibilities. This last group may be divided 


\ 
i 
| 


Differences 
tween Hamitic 
and Semitic 


Three Classes 
among Caucasian 
Negroes 


Further 
Modifications 


fe) 
p 
ns 
.) 

a} 


212 The Upward Path 


into three classes, not as to the relativ 
amount of white and black blood or as t 
color, but as to certain marked characteris 
tics. First, there is the large, musculai 
type with the Negro features magnified 
who is self-assertive and loud-voiced. Ths 
second type resembles the first, but is in 
ferior to it physically and mentally. Thess 
two classes often combine the worst trait: 
of both races and form the most dangerous 
elements of the Negro population. Th 
third type more nearly resembles the Cau 
casian physically and mentally and in in 
clinations, and some have minds capabl 
of the Heaney eulture.1 | 

Of course all these groups have beet 
modified by frequent admixture amon 
themselves, thus blending their differen 
characteristics, and here and there may bi 
found one or more of an entirely differen 
type from any here mentioned. Yet take 
as a whole, these four groups are s 
marked and diverse, not only in their char 
acteristics but in their possibilities, that i 
would be manifestly unfair to demand thi 
same treatment, training, and educatiot1 
for all Negroes under all circumstances 


1 Bean, Century Magazine, September, 1906, 


ye a ar 


TYPICAL GROUP OF STUDENTS 


PHYSICAL LABORATORY 


Educational Opportunities 213 


this is true, how much more unjust to 
‘do so for the still more widely divergent 
‘white and black races in their different 
‘stages of development. 

_ Not only in solving the political and so- 
cial Negro problem, but in educating and 


‘Christianizing him there are fundamental: 


‘principles that should be considered and 
established in order to secure a reasonable 
‘basis upon which to build and proceed to 
‘success. This will require a careful study 
‘of the different races that are involved. 
This is not the place to present the di- 


Fundamental 
Principles Must 
Be Considered 


More Li 
Ahead ae 


‘vergent views of scientists as to certam , 


racial mental differences. That must be 
‘left to students of anthropology, and psy- 
chology, whose investigations have not 
yet reached undoubted conclusions. The 
day may come when out of their honest, pa- 
tient investigations there will be evolved 
assured facts relating to the mind and 
spirit that will enable those who follow 
after them to labor more wisely for man’s 
advancement and God’s glory. 
In dealing with or passing judgment 
upon any race, due consideration must be 
_ given to the history and status of that race 


in the life of humanity. It is in accord 


Time Required 
for Development 


V 


Educational 
Advancement 
without Parallel 


; 
214 The Upward Path ! 


with the laws of evolution to recognize the 
Negro as ‘‘.a child race,’’ that must pro- 
ceed as all races have done through the 
processes of development to its highest 
and best. No race has risen as a whole 
with a sudden bound from one step in its 
evolution to another. There has always 
been first, individuals, then groups, that 
have appeared above the level of the mass 
and by their efforts, alone or aided, accord- 
ing to circumstances, have Hetpad to lift 
up those on the lone plane. ‘‘ Rome was 
not built in a day ’’ ; far less the peoples 
that formed the great Roman Empire. 

Looking back only a few generations to 
the African savage and less than fifty 
years to the slave, we see remarkable prog- 


, ress in the mental evolution of the Ameri-. 


can Negro. To expect that the whole race 
in so short a period of time would reach 
the highest level of civilization and of 
mental and moral development would be 
to demand of it a miracle such as no other 
race in the world has performed. Yet 
when we note such facts as that the lit- 
eracy of the race has risen from five to 
about sixty per cent. in less than fifty 
years, we claim that such an educational 


; Educational Opportunities 215 


‘advancement is without parallel in a race, 
and it appears still more remarkable when 
we find a growing class of its men and 
women entering the higher ranks of edu- 
eators and professional workers. With 
‘such facts before us we are ready to say 
that which God has begun to work out for 
the race and through the race for the world 
shall be accomplished. There is no cause 
for discouragement, when we look back- 
ward; and there is every reason to hope, 
when we look forward with the patience of 
faith. 


SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VI 


‘Am: To REALIZE THE EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS 
_ anp NEEDS FoR FuRTHER Errorts AMONG THE NE- 
GROES. 


1. Why is education fundamental to the best life 
of a nation? 
2.* What should be the chief aims of education? 
3. Can you give any reasons why the ignorant 
among any race should not be educated? 
4.* What does a nation gain by educating its peo- 
ple? 

5.* What is the effect of ignorance upon the indus- 
trial and social] life of the people? 

6. Why was the South not able to support schools 
among the Negroes immediately after the war? 

7. What were the motives that caused the Freed- 


216 The Upward Path 


men’s Bureau to establish schools among 
Negroes? 

8. What is the extent of the public school sys 
tem of education now supported by the South 
ern States in behalf of the Negroes? 

9. What other agencies are assisting in the educ \- 
tion of the Negro? 

10.* Do you believe the Negro has improved in edu- 
cational opportunities thus far? Give reasons 

11.* What is the comparative need and value 
industrial and professional schools? 

12. Is it just to use the same method of education 
among Negroes as among whites? 

13. What type of schools should immediately 
strengthened and why? 

14. How much financial support ean reasonably be 
expected from the Negroes? 

15. Where and from what class must the educa 
tional leaders be secured, and why? 

16. State in the order of importance the greatest 
educational needs among the Negroes. 

17. Where can the money be secured to carry out 
these plans? 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER Stupy.—CuHaptEer VI 


Negro Education+ 


Bratton: ‘‘ The Christian South and the Edu- 


cation of the Negro,’’ Sewanee Review, July, 
708. 


1 For articles on the education of the Negro in mission schools, — 
denominational periodicals and home mission magazines should be 
consulted. Other material on the question of education will be 
found in the United States Census and Bureau of Education, the 
Slater Fund Paper and the publications referred to in the previous — 
Teferences, 


Educational Opportunities 217 


i DuBois: The Souls of the Black Folk, VI. 
Gordon: ‘‘ Manual Training for Negro Chil- 
dren, Charities, Oct. 7, 705. 

Miller: Race Adjustment, 244-274. 

Murphy: Problems of the Present South, II. 
Perey: ‘‘ A Southern View of the Edueation of 
the Negro,’’ Outlook, Aug. 3, ’07. 

Price, The Negro, XXII. 

Shannon: Racial Integrity, IV. 

Washington: ‘‘ Education of the Man Behind 
the Plow,’’ Independent, April 23, 708. 
Washington: Up From Slavery, XI. 
Washington: Working With the Hands, Hes 
XIX. 


SR AN han ee 1 ~ 


v 


The slave had found in Christianity, often in rude, 
half-barbaric forms, a consolation, a refuge, a tender- 
ness and hope, to which we can scarcely do justice. Per- 
haps its most eloquent expression to our imagination is 


those wonderful old-time melodies, the Negro ‘‘ spirit-— 
uals,’’? as they have been made familiar by the singers © 
of the Negro colleges. Their words are mystic, Scrip- 
tural, grotesque; the melodies have a pathos, a charm, 


a moving power, born out of the heart’s depths through 


centuries of sorrow dimly lighted by glimmerings of a- 


divine love and hope. The typical African temperament, 
the tragedy of bondage, the tenderness and triumph of 
religion, find voice in those psalms. 


—George S. Merriam 


To every man among them with the evident qualities 


of leadership we should lend our Christian sympathy and 


a helping hand. President Tucker, of Dartmouth Col- 


lege, was entirely correct when he said: ‘‘ I believe with 


a growing conviction that the salvation of the Negro 
in this country lies with the exceptional men of that 
race.’? And nose who have studied the philosophy of 


Christian mis:ions and the progress of civilization will 


tell you that the same is true of all the peoples of the 
earth. We train and Christianize the exceptional men 


who are to be the real redeemers of their race, whether 


in China, Japan, India, or Africa. 


—Charles B. Galloway 


The various missionary socities . . . have done a 
work which, in a large degree, has been the salvation of 
the South; and the result will appear in future genera- 
tions more than in this. | 


—Booker T. Washington 


Se ee 


VII 
RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 


apie is no phase in the history of the 
Negro’s progress more striking and 
remarkable than that of his religious de- 
velopment. This would become convinc- 
ingly apparent to the most skeptical could 
they be transported to Africa and view the 
weird incantations of the savage fetich 
worshiper, and returning enter a Negro 
church where a congregation of earnest 
Christians listen intelligently to the 
preaching of the gospel by an educated 
minister, and such churches can be found 
in hundreds of communities. 

In his other dealings with the race God 
may have moved ‘‘ in a mysterious way 
his wonders to perform,’’ but his presence 
and grace are clearly manifest in the work 
of the Holy Spirit in these transformed 
ives. This has been done in accordance 
with his own divine plan for the redemp- 
ion of the world—by the testimony of liv- 
mg witnesses, as, in obedience to his com- 


Religious 
Development 


Result of God’s 
Grace 


222 The Upward Path 


mand, they preached the gospel to ‘* every 
creature !’’ 
Results of Work — No study of the American Negro could 
Slaves be complete without a narrative of how 
this great change has been effected. Some 
general statements have been given in 
Chapter II, showing the many and varied 
difficulties that for a time seemed almost 
insurmountable to those who sought to 
evangelize the Negro slaves. The results 
of their efforts were seen in 1860, when 
nearly one-half of the 4,000,000 Negroes 
congregated in the South were either en- 
rolled members of the Church, or under di- 
rect Christian influence and instruction 
This story has been told in interesting de 
tail by the Rev. C. C. Jones of Savannah 
Georgia, in his book, The Religious In 
struction of the Negroes of the Umtea 
States, published in 1842; and in The Gos. 
pel among the Slaves, by Harrison an¢ 
Barnes, which takes up Dr. Jones’ account 
and carries the narrative down to 1868 
From these two authentic sources the fat 
lowing statements are drawn. 
Work Begun by 'The first organized effort to give cou 


e Society 
th 


rope he instruction to the Negroes in the Americar 
fhe Gospel in colonies was made in 1701 by the Societj 


y 


ge 


Religious Development 223 


for the Propagation of the Gospel in For- 
eign Parts incorporated under William 
il. The first missionary, the Rev. 


Samuel Thomas, began work in South- 


Carolina, where he and his successors met 
with ‘‘ the ready good-will of the masters, 
though much discouragement was felt be- 
cause of the difficulties of the task, not 
many of the Negroes understanding the 
English tongue.’’ The zeal of the society 
and its missionaries increased, and in less 
... forty years the report was made of 

*‘ great multitude of Indians and Ne- 
& brought over to the Christian faith ”’ 
in different parts of the country, and later 
of a flourishing school at Charleston send- 
ing out annually about twenty young Ne- 
groes well instructed in English and the 
Christian faith. 

After the separation of the colonies from 
the mother country the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church took up the work of the Eng- 
lish society with increased interest and 
zeal, and in 1841 it reported in South Caro- 
ina alone 869 colored members in twenty- 
wo churches, and fifteen Sunday-schools 
with 1,459 pupils, and also two plantation 
missions with congregations of 1,400 Ne- 


Taken over by 
Protestant 
Episcopal Church 


Presbyterians 


Baptists 


224 The Upward Path 


groes. In Virginia a similar work was 
being done by the same methods. 

A direct effort for the religious instruc 
tion of the Negroes was begun by Presby- 
terians in 1747 at Hanover, Virginia, witl 
immediate success. About 1,000 Negroes 
attended the ministry of the Rev. Samue 
Davis, at different points, who were eage! 
to hear and readily accepted the gospel 
Other missions were established and many 
godly men devoted their time to the worl 
among the slaves both in the towns and o1 
the plantations. Sunday-schools were es 
tablished and the Bible and catechism wer: 
taught. The greatest work of this Churel 
was in printing and freely distributin; 
sermons and books addressed to the own 
ers, urging them to give religious instruc 
tion to their servants. Their synods an 
Presbyteries adopted resolutions impress 
ing this duty upon the masters, while in 
creased efforts to evangelize the Negr 
continued fruitful in results, until retarde 
by the abolition excitement in the fre 
States between the years 1839 and 1842. 

As the result of sweeping revivals in th 
Baptist churches about 1785 and 179 
large numbers of Negroes were converte 


Religious Development 225 
and joined that Church. In 1793 its colored 
members numbered over 18,000 and twenty 
years later there were enrolled 40,000 
members and a number of preachers and 
exhorters who preached to thousands of 
their own color on the plantations. In 1841 
there were attached to this Church more 
Negro communicants and more regular 
houses of worship exclusively for Negroes 
with their own ordained preachers than to 
any other Church. Many Sunday-schools 
were reported, with large numbers of 
pupils. 

From the Rev. J. W. Jones of Richmond, 
Virginia, a leading Baptist divine and one 
well versed in the history of his denomina- 
tion and of the South, the following infor- 
mation has been secured: ‘‘ It was custo- 
mary for our white pastors to hold special 
services for the Negroes in all of their 
churches, and each church had a special 
committee on the religious instruction of 
the Negroes. Our home mission board also 
had special missionaries among them. As 
a result of this work, it was estimated that 
in 1860 there were 400,000 Negroes belong- 
ing to the white Baptist churches of the 
South. Many individual Christians were 


Relation of 
Whites to 
Negroes 


Types of 
Missionary 
Work Among 
Negroes 


Methodists 


. 
226 The Upward Path 


accustomed to have their Negroes attend 
their family worship and to give them spe- 
cial religious instruction besides. 

“‘ Indeed, no missionary work anywhere 
has been so successful as the work ol 
Southern Christians among these people 
whom old England and New Englan¢ 
brought as pagans, and in some cases as 
cannibals, to our shores. Such Negrt 
Sunday-schools as Stonewall Jackson’s ir 
Lexington, Virginia, Prof. John B 
Minor’s at the University of Virginia, Dr 
James P. Bryce’s and H. A. Tuppin’s i 
Charleston, South Carolina, and Dr. J. © 
Furman’s in Greenville, South Caroliné 
(all men of note), were but specimens 0: 
the general work which the Southern whig 
people did for the Negro people.”’ 

In 1860 the number of Negro Bap 
tists was estimated at 400,000, and count 
ing three adherents to each of these bap 
tized adults we have 1,200,000 Negroe 
under the instruction and influence of tha 
Church. | 

One of the first missionaries of Methe 
dism in the United States (1766) report 
successful work among the Negroes. I 
describing a Virginia revival in about 177 


. Religious Development 227 


ie says, ‘‘ Hundreds of Negroes were 
here with tears streaming down their 
aces . .. as they expressed their love 
or Jesus.’’ In 1797 there were 12,215 col- 
red members and in less than twenty 
rears later there were nearly four times 
hat number. The objections made at first 
yy slave-owners to these efforts to Chris- 
lanize the Negroes passed away, as they 
vitnessed the effect of the gospel upon 
hem, and the preachers were encouraged 
nd aided in their labors, especially in the 
antation missions, until suspicion of 
heir motives was aroused by the anti- 
lavery movement in this Church. Later, 
his being removed, the work again pros- 
ered. In 1861 the colored membership of 
he Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
vas 207,776. Counting three adherents to 
ach enrolled member, we have 623,328 Ne- 
ro slaves under the instruction of this 
Jhurch. During the thirty-four years of 
ts slave mission period the Methodist 
ipiscopal Church paid out upward of 
2,000,000 for Christianizing the Negro 
laves. 

In the year 1864, when every resource 
vas well-nigh exhausted, the white Chris- 


White Christians 
Aiding Negroes 


Piantation 
Missions 
Organized 


5 


—. 


228 The Upward Path 


4 
Se pa 


tians of the South gave for the religiou ! 
instruction of the Negroes a sum thai 
would closely approximate $250,000. This 
great work was accomplished largely by 
the direct preaching of the gospel, aided 
by much personal work of missionaries and 
Christian owners, and also by careful in: 
struction in the Bible and catechism. Tf 
was usual in the towns for both races to 
be members of the same congregation, to 
worship in the same house (separate sit- 
tings being provided for the colored mem- 
bers), and to receive the sacrament from 
the same altar. In some instances sepa- 
rate churches were built for them, where 
they were preached to by white pastors or 
an approved colored minister. 

The necessity for a different provision 
for evangelizing the large masses of the 
Negroes who were on the plantations be- 
came apparent as early as 1821, and 
‘* plantation missions ’’ were organized to 
meet the needs, first by the Methodists in 
South Carolina and afterward in other 
sections and by other churches. Place is 
given here for a description of that work 
from an address by the Rev. L. F. Beaty, 
before the historical society of the South 


Religious Development 229 


Carolina Conference, because what he says 
is applicable to the same class of work 
done all through the Southern States and 
by other churches. 


_ “* Tt was found that the regular ministry 


did not reach the river deltas of the ‘ low 
country ’ where on sugar, rice, and cotton 
plantations were segregated large num- 
bers of Negroes who had but few advan- 
tages of civilization, and little knowledge 
of God and his Word. But the day of 
their deliverance was at hand... . In 
1821 the Missionary Society of the Santh 
Carolina Conference was organized, and 
with it began an increased attention to the 
religious improvement of the blacks. Dr. 
Capers, afterward Bishop, was profoundly 
interested and through him appeals came 
to send regular missionaries to their slave 
plantations from the Hon. Chas. C. Pinck- 
ney, Col. Lewis Morris, and Mr. Chas. 
Baring—names written high in the annals 
of the State. These gentlemen and many 
others were ever after warm supporters 
‘of this cause, and by their strong personal 
influence contributed largely to its ulti- 
mate success. 

** Not only were these South Carolina 


creased 
Attention to 
Religious 
Improvement 
of Negroes 


230 The Upward Path 


wicaoe wtation_planters interested in the salvation of their 
slaves, but the Southern people as a who 
demanded kind treatment and religious 
training in their behalf, as witness t 
later fact that a great statesman of Mis- 
sissippi, almost omnipotent in political in- 
fluence, was hurled from place and power 
because he was regarded as unsound oy 
the great issue, plantation preaching. . : 
Cobperation of  ‘¢ The assistance which many of the 
planters and their families gave the mis- 
sionaries was invaluable. Theynotonly pro- 

vided places of worship, but they did all 
they could to encourage the attendance : 
the Negroes upon religious services. They 
assisted in teaching the little Negroes 
the Word of God, and in the absence of 
the missionary, held regigious services for 
the older ones. Many a dying slave had 
the couch of death softened by the tender 
ministrations of these faithful Christian 
owners. ... r 
Missionaries One of the most interesting sights if 
plantation life was the missionary’s ar- 
rival; his hearty greeting from scores and 
sometimes hundreds of little Negroes, ery- 

ing ‘ Preacher’s come!’ which was fo 

lowed by a general preparation for thé 


Gd mn ne pine 


} 


Religious Development 231 


Wicchising service, the singing of hymns 
he had taught them, and prayers. . . 
Often the master 2a his family took Tne 
in the service held in a plain church pre- 
pared for it. . . . After this came the 
class-meetings conducted by the preacher, 
and they were fruitful of good. The 
prayer-meetings were often occasions of 
great power and blessing. Besides faith- 
ful catechising, all ages were taught the 
Apostle’s Creed, the Ten Commandments, 
and the Lord’s Prayer. Visits were made 
yy the preacher to the aged and sick, and 
often the cabin home became the very ante- 
chamber of heaven. 

_“ The first missionaries appointed (by 
the South Carolina Conference) to the 
people ‘ of color’ (in 1829), were John 
Honour, John H. Massey, and James Dan- 
nelly, under the superintendence of Dr. 
Capers, and 657 members were gained 
during the year. In 1838, only nine years 
later, there were in that Conference 6,556 
members in the twelve plantation missions 
(besides the 23,498 members in the regular 
sharges), and 25,025 Negro children study- 
ing the catechism prepared by Bishop 
_ In 1864 in that one State alone 


First 
Missionaries and 


Results 


232 The Upward Path 


there were thirty-two missionaries giving 

their whole time to this work, with 13,378 
members of the missions, and $42,475 cok 

lected for its maintenance (and this not 
withstanding the war was in progress with 

; its ‘ hard times ’).’” 
eviscopttetist = This work was wrought out in the fac 
Condemns of many difficulties—but a still greater of 
stacle was added in the antagonism aroused 

in the public mind by the attitude of the 
Church toward slavery. The General Com 
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Churel 

in 1800 condemned Negro slavery in strong 

terms and urged its abolishment. T : 
resolutions embodying this pronounce 

ment were published, probably, by every 
newspaper in the South, and this was cal 
culated to destroy the Methodist Church i 

that section. Later stringent enactmen 

and a continual agitation of the subje 
embittered many against that Church. Th 
antislavery sentiment was stronger in t 

South before this position was taken thai 

it was at any subsequent time. It provet 

to be injurious to the preachers, thi 
Church, and to the slaves themselves 

' Every Methodist preacher was regardet 

as an abolition agent, and indiscreet one 


j Religious Development 233 
“among them, trying to carry out the reso- 
‘lutions of the Conference, brought upon 
themselves the violence of the lawless ele- 
‘ments of society. Persecution against 
those who undertook to preach to the Ne- 
-groes was now rife in every direction. 

““ No apology can, or ought to be, made 
for those miscreants who resorted to vio- 
lence in their treatment of Methodist 
preachers, not because they cared for the 
slaves or their masters, but because they 
loved deeds of violence. But the truth 
of history requires it to be stated that the 
Methodist Church had assumed the posi- 
tion of an abolitionist society, and it was 
natural that this should excite the sus- 
picions of the slaveholders, arouse the ani- 
mosity and opposition of those who 
were non-christian, and render the Church 
generally unpopular. It required almost 


Methodist 
Declaration 
Aroused 
Suspicion and 
imosity 


a whole generation of time to overcome . 


this hostility. Where the Negroes were 
mingled with the white family, worship- 
ing under the same roof and taught by the 
same minister, it was easy enough to break 
down the prejudice.’’! But on the large 
plantations, where the overseer and his 


1 Harrison and Barnes, The Gospel Among the Slaves, 143. 


Violent 

position to 
Abolitionists also 
in North 


$ 
q 


234 The Upward Path 
family were the only white people, whi 
could assure the owner that under the pre- 
tense of preaching the gospel his Negroes 
would not be stirred up to rebellion? $ 

Violent expressions of disapproval of 
abolition doctrines were not limited to the 
South. William Lloyd Garrison was 
mobbed and dragged through the streets 
of Boston in 1835, barely escaping with his 
life, and the entire press of the city, with 
one or two exceptions, approved the action 
of the mob. The English abolitionist, 
George Thompson, had a narrow escape 
from a mob in Concord, Massachusetts, 
and also in Augusta, Maine. Whittier was 
pelted with mud and stones. Prudence 
Crandall, for teaching colored girls in Can- 
terbury, Connecticut, was subjected to per- 
sistent, barbarous persecution. The shops 
and meeting-houses were closed against 
her and her pupils. ‘‘ Carriage in public 
conveyance was denied them; physicians 
would not wait on them; Miss Crandall’s 
own family and friends were forbidden un- 
der many fines to visit her; the well was 
filled with manure, and water from other 
sources refused; the house itself was 
smeared with filth, assailed with rotten 


Religious Development 235 


eges, and finally set on fire.’”?? At last 
Miss Crandall was expelled from the State 
by law, and an act was passed by the legis- 
lature prohibiting private schools for non- 
resident colored people and providing for 
their expulsion. At Canaan, New Hamp- 
shire, the Noyes Academy, ‘‘ open to pu- 
pils of both colors,’’ in pursuance of a 
formal town meeting vote was dragged 
from the land within the corporate limits 
of the town and the teacher and colored 
pupils given a month in which to quit the 
town. 

It was largely left to the Methodist 
preachers in the South to stem this oppos- 
ing current of public opinion. The exam- 
ple of the illustrious Bishop Capers was 
followed by many of the preachers and the 
Owners becoming convinced that, instead 
of creating trouble and strife, the preach- 
ing of such men as these did much to pre- 
Serve peace and good conduct among the 
Negroes, gave their full consent for their 
slaves to hear the gospel from these white 
missionaries. 

_ The division of the Methodist Church, 
in 1844, was regarded by wise and good 


lL Life of William Lloyd Garrison, 321. 


Example of 
Bishop Capers 
and Others 


236 The Upward Path 


men of that time as a necessity, to preve 
the destruction of the Church in 
South.t The immediate result of the 
ganization of the Methodist Episcop 
Church, South, was the breaking down ¢ 
every barrier in preaching the gospel 
the slaves. The call for missionarie 
was heard throughout the whole of th 
South, where large numbers of ala 
existed. 
Whole South «¢ The religious sentiment of the who 
Missions to Slaves iouthern country became keenly and jea 
ously aroused in behalf of slave mission 
Every effort within the power of he 
Christian people was put forth to furnis 
the Negro, especially the plantation Negr 
the light of the gospel. Men, women, an 
even little children contributed to the fun 
. High and low alike entered into thi 
noble work. There was no phase of it to 
humble, no duty too unpleasant, to dete 
the most earnest and painstaking effort.” 
All the churches shared in this revival ¢ 
interest, especially the Baptist, which oui 
1 Reference is made to the division of the Methodist moa 
Church because of its historical importance and wide-spread e' 
on this work among the slaves. The divisions that occurred 
other Churches were later and had little or no connection 


slavery. 
2 Harrison and Barnes, The Gospel Among the Slaves, 302. — 


| 


y Religious Development Bot 


stripped all others in its Negro member- 
ship. 

_ The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
never held in its richest Churches, nor sent 
to any mission field, men of higher order 
of intellect, culture, or consecration than 
those who were appointed by it as super- 
intendents and pastors of its missions 
among the Southern slaves. Bishops An- 
drew, Capers, Early, McTyire, and Fitz- 
gerald; Drs. McFerrin, Evans, and many 
others, though called in after years to fill 
the highest offices in the Church, accounted 
among their richest experiences and hap- 
piest work that which came to them as mis- 
sionaries to the Negroes. 

There was scarcely any comparison now 
between the condition of these plantation 
Negroes and their state when this work 
of evangelization was begun among them. 
Then, ‘‘ ignorant, superstitious, grossly 
immoral, it was like seeking to pierce im- 
penetrable darkness. Thousands of them 
could speak English in only a broken way, 
while hundreds still jabbered their African 
dialects. It was pitiful to hear them trying 
to pray in their broken language.’’! Now, 


1 Harrison and Barnes, The Gospel Among the Slaves, 305. 


Strongest 
Men 


Marvelous 
Change Wrought 


Religicus 
Experience 
ined in 
Slavery 


Negro Melodies 


238 The Upward Path 


many of those who had received the gosp 
seed in hearts, made fertile by the Hol 
Spirit, became themselves the sowers of 
the Word. And so this work of grace grew 
and multiplied, until thousands and thou 
sands were converted to Christ and b 

their lives gave abundant evidence of his 
righteousness. , 

Christian Negroes gained, while in slay- 
ery, not only a true mental conception o 
God, but a spiritual perception of his tru 
which their related experiences an 
prayers made manifest to those who heard 
them in that day. A record of this fae 
has been preserved and handed down t 
later generations in their songs, and of 
them more than of any other people it ma 
be said, ‘‘ Their songs are the voice of the 
soul.’? To those well versed in what 4 
called Plantation Melodies, it is clear tha 
not only did the Negro possess an ortho- 
dox theology but it possessed him, perme 
ating, as it did, his whole life, and moldin 
his religious experience. 

‘‘ The Negro was ever singing; he san 
of his troubles and hopes, his bondage : 
his freedom. Mingled with these wer 
echoes of his struggles with sin, his striv- 


% 
¥ 


' } Religious Development 239 


ing after godliness, his fleeing from Satan, 
his search for God.’’! 

_ After the Civil War there were some 
sporadic efforts made by the Southern 
white people to continue or renew the work 
‘of Christianizing the Negroes with past 
methods; but this was rendered difficult 
and often impossible by the conditions that 
prevailed during the Reconstruction 
Period. Kindly feeling for them still ex- 
isted with many, and the hand of help was 
extended whenever 2nd wherever those 
conditions made it possible. The attitude 
of the Negro mind toward the white people 
eho had once owned them caused them to 

refuse to occupy the sittings formerly as- 

‘signed them in the white churches, and to 

seek to build their own churches. 

_ The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Methodists 
im organizing its colored members into a 
‘separate Church bestowed on them all the 
churches it had built for their distinctive 
use—a rich gift—and aided them in every 
possible way. A large number of its col- 

‘ored members, however, went into the 
‘Methodist Episcopal Church and into the 


| 1 Procter, Southern Workman, November, 1907. The author is 
‘much indebted to this writer for some suggestions in the detailed 
account of Plantation Melodies given in Appendix B. 


Baptists and 
Others 


Work of 
Christian Schools 


Growth in 
hurc 
Organization 


240 The Upward Path 


African Methodist Episcopal Chure 
from which bodies they received much help 
in the building of churches and in the edu- 
eation and support of the ministry. 

The Baptist congregations had less diffi- 
culty in securing and maintaining a dis- 
tinct Negro Church, for they had more 
churches for their exclusive use while 
slaves, and these were retained by them 
without the necessity of legal procedure. 
These also have received help from both 
Southern and Northern friends of that de- 
nomination as the years have gone by. 
Other Churches have aided in the direct 
work of evangelization by preaching the 
gospel and in building churches for a 
Negroes. 

But by far the greatest work for their 
religious betterment since emancipation 
has been done through the Christian 
schools established for their benefit by the 
white churche ' and mission boards, North 
and South, and by their own intelligent ef- 
forts resulting from the advantages thus 
gained. 

We have noted the progress of th 
American Negro as a citizen in his indus- 
trial and economic attainments, his “a 


—_ 


HOYNOOIAVOS "SS “M 


TITASSNY “S Ssanve 


NONUTA “LM 


4) Religious Development 241 
‘and social life, his political, criminal, and 
physical status. We have also seen him 
‘as a student in all the different phases of 
his educational world. We must now turn 
our attention to the still more important 
side of his nature, the spiritual, and con- 
sider him as a Christian, and see how far 
he has advanced in Church organization 
and attainment in righteousness. Relig- 
ious statistics are always difficult to obtain 
because of the inaccuracy of Church 
records. This is markedly the case among 
the Negroes, and the difficulty is increased 
by the fact that some white Churches have 
Negro members whom they do not report 
separately. 

The majority of the Negroes are Bap- 
tists or Methodists. In Dr. Strong’s So- 
cial Progress, for 1906 the combined re- 
ports of eight Negro Methodist organiza- 
tions place their membership at 1,863,258, 
with 14,844 regular preachers and 30,725 
local preachers. Their Church property is 
valued at $22,267,298. The colored Bap- 
tist Churches report a membership of 
2,038,427, with 16,080 ministers, and 
Church property valued at $12,196,130. 
There are some Baptist organizations with 


Denominational 
Statistics 


242 The Upward Path . 
. 


a considerable following of which no report 
could be obtained. Besides these, there 
are a large number of colored members in 
the following Churches: Methodist Episco- 
pal, Presbyterian (North and South), Re- 
formed Presbyterian, Protestant Episco- 
pal, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, 
some small Methodist bodies, Lutheran, 
and Roman Catholic. Considering the rate 
of growth in the past it will be a safe esti- 
mate to say that at this time there are 
4,500,000 enrolled as Church members, and 
at least 3,000,000 adherents; or that more 
than two thirds of the entire Negro popula- 
tion are related to some Church. 

maiican ~=s The first Church organization for Ne- 

Etihacn groes only was the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church, which was effected un- 
der the leadership of Richard Allen. 
‘¢ This was owing to a defection among the 
colored members in Philadelphia, by which 
upward of 1,000 in that city withdrew from 
the Methodist Episcopal Church... . At 
their first General Conference Richard Al- 
len was elected Bishop.’?? This Church 
spread slowly at first through the North- 
ern States but did not come South until af- 


1 Bangs, History of Methodism. 


, 


i Religious Development 243 
Ser the Civil War. Now it is widely dis- 
tributed, having 762,580 members and 
property valued at $10,360,131. It has 
to- day in Africa one hundred and eighty 
‘mission stations with 12,000 members, be- 
‘sides missions in Canada and the West In- 
dies. It supports at home twenty-five 
‘schools, with about 4,000 pupils and prop- 
erty valued at $535,000. 

The African Methodist Episcopal Zion 


Church was organized in New York and 


‘had a similar history to the African Metho- 
‘dist Episcopal Church. Its last available 
report claims 575,271 members and 
Church property of all kinds valued at 
$5,102,567. It has established and main- 
tained nineteen schools. These two 
Churches have united and the consolidated 
organization forms one of the largest de- 
nominations in this country. It is possible 
that other smaller Negro Methodist de- 
“nominations will in the near future unite 
with them. 

The Colored Methodist Episcopal 
Church was organized in 1866 by the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, out of 

its colored members. Two bishops of their 
own election were ordained, and all Church 


African 
Methodist 
Episcopal Zion 
Church 


Colored 
Methodist 
Episcopal 
Church and 
Others 


National Baptist 
mvention 


244 The Upward Path 


property that had been acquired, held, ané 
used for Methodist Negroes was turned 
over to them. This Church has now 209,- 
972 communicants and property valued at 
$2,525,600. It suports five schools and has 
a publishing house worth $20,000. There 
are four smaller Methodist organizations 
and the Methodist Episcopal Church has 
292,109 colored members. q 

The first Baptist church for colored peo- 
ple was’ organized in Williamsburg, Vir- 
ginia, in 1796. There are now six Baptist 
denominations, the largest being known as 
the Regular Baptists and has 1,348,989 
members with property valued at $9,038,- 
549. ‘‘ These Baptist churches unite in as- 
sociations and State conventions for mis- 
sionary and educational work. For a 
long time, however, it seemed impossible to 
unite any large number of them in a na- 
tional convention, but this has at last been 
done. The National Baptist Convention 
(all Negroes) was organized at Atlanta, 
Georgia, September 28, 1895. Its objects 
are missionary and educational work and 
the publication of religious literature.’?! 

“he most remarkable result of the 


i Atlanta University Publications, No. 8. 


Religious Development 245 


- united effort of the Negro Baptists is the 


home mission department, including the 
_ publishing house. For these purposes in 
- 1902 they expended $81,658. They have 
established foreign missions in various 
parts of Africa, the West Indies, South 
_ America, and Russia. In these missions 
they support thirty-seven missionaries and 
a large number of native helpers. Of the 
missionaries, eight are American Negroes 
and eleven are native Africans who have 
received their education in America. 
Through its educational department, this 
Church maintains in America eighty 
schools, with probably 6,000 or 7,000 pu- 
pils. They are for the most part primary 
and secondary schools, and supplement the 
public schools. School property is valued 
at $564,000, and they raised in 1902 the 
sum of -$127,941 for education. Forty- 
three periodicals are published by them. 

The Christian Church (Disciples of 
Christ) reported in 1908 a membership of 
55,881 and 475 ministers in strictly Negro 
churches. The Congregational, Presby- 
terian, Cumberland Presbyterian, and 
Episcopal Negro Churches are largely the 
immediate result of the educational institu- 


Negro Baptist 
Home an 
Foreign Missions 


Disciples of 
Christ and Other 
Denominations 


Roman Catholics 


Missionary and 
Benevolent 
Societies 


246 The Upward Path 


tions of these Churches, and as a general 
thing their ministers and congregations are 
from the educated class, but they are few 
in number and increase slowly. The mem- 
bership of these four denominations num- 
bers about 65,000. They have no distinct 
general organizations, but are affiliated 
with the white churches through whose 
missionary effort they were organized. 

There are but few Roman Catholies out- 
side of Louisiana and other parts of the 
country that were formerly under French 
or Spanish domination. No statistics con- 
cerning them could be obtained. 

In all of these Churches there are 
women’s missionary societies more or less 
developed and effective. There are also 
many benevolent societies that do much 
local home mission and charity work. 
There are generally societies of various 
kinds for young people and children. The 
difficulty of procuring correct data of these 
organizations renders it impossible to even 
estimate their numerical or spiritual force. 
Outside of the regular preaching service, 
the Sunday-school is the most universal 
and best developed feature in all the 
Churches, and the teaching and training of 


i Religious Development 247 
: 


_ Sunday-school teachers presents a large 

_ opportunity to those who desire to do local 

- missionary work among the Negroes. 

_ The Young Men’s Christian Association (pmg.ns 
is doing a good and growing work both in ““°“##" 
city and college. There are at present one 
hundred and twenty-six colored associa. 

- tions with a membership of 9,198, and six- 

teen buildings are owned, valued at $185,- 

900. There are twenty-eight secretaries 
employed by the local associations. 


CHURCH CONDITIONS AND METHODS 


The Atlanta University has issued as 
one of its social studies a pamphlet desig- 
nated ‘‘ The Negro Church.’’+ Though 
one may not agree with all the conclusions 
drawn, yet the first-hand investigations it 
presents are very valuable. These investi- 
gations are made by intelligent, educated 
Negroes in different localities, North and 

_ South, and are generally based on the fol- 
lowing inquiries: 

1. What is the condition of the churches? 

2. What is the influence of the churches? 

1 This pamphlet is prepared and edited by Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, 
of the Atlanta University, who is one of the leading Negroes in 


the South in the advocacy of higher education. That publication 
is responsible for the statements under this heading. 


Black Belt 
County in 
Georgia 


248 The Upward Path 


3. Are the ministers good? 

4. What charity work is done? 

5. What is done for the young people? 

6. Are moral standards being raised? 

The responses made to these questions 
are remarkable chiefly for their diversity, 
running from one end of the gamut of 
opinion to the other—from the extreme of 
optimism to the extreme of pessimism. 
This is what might be expected in any in- 
vestigation of the religious life of individ- 
uals or of communities, yet the facts and 
illustrations upon which these opinions are 
based are extremely interesting and sug- 
gestive. It would not be possible here to 
give more than a brief summary of these, 
with a few items especially illustrative. 

In a ‘‘ black belt ’? county of Georgia 
there are ninety-eight churches of all de- 
nominations, the Baptist predominating, 
for a Negro population of 17,450. ‘‘ Un- 
like most of our American population, the 
Negro is well churched. It is his only in- 
stitution and forms the center of his pub- 
lie life.’? Many of these churches have 
been formed as the result of ‘‘a split ”’ 
eaused by internal dissension, and not 
from the home mission work of the larger 


¢ 
4 we 
Religious Development 249 


i These churches demand the 
shout-producing preacher, and value his 
ability to preach ‘‘ rousement ’’ sermons 
more than his education or morals. The 
result is that young men of ability and edu- 
eation are driven out of the ministry and 
‘the Church has no influence over those of 
both sexes who have been to college nor 
can draw them to its services, except as it 
furnishes them amusement. Inordinate 
rivalry exists between the denominations 
to the extent of ‘‘ petty meannesses,’’ and 
“money ranks a member higher than moral- 
ity. There are about one hundred and 
twenty preachers in the county. The 
“number might be doubled if there were 
added all who call themselves preachers 
and who try to interpret the Word of God. 
Out of forty-three applicants for admis- 
sion to a Methodist Conference, thirty-five 
were refused, but that did not deter them 
from preaching. 

Learned or unlearned, the Negro 
preacher is to-day the leader of the race. 
The ignorant preacher has an ignorant 
wife and their home life is on no higher 
level than those of the congregation. In 
morality they have much to learn: moral- 


Preachers are 
the Leaders 


250 The Upward Path 


ity as it affects (1) temperance, (2) debt- 
paying and business honesty, (3) sexual 
relations. Responses from intelligent lay- 
men in this county generally accuse the 
preachers of being sexually immoral and 
many say ‘‘ the influence of the Church is 
bad,’’ yet these statements are contra- 
dicted by others who say ‘‘ the moral 
standards are being raised.’”? One says, 
‘“There are fewer separations of hus- 
bands and wives, and fewer illegitimate 
children.”’ 
Ingannville At Farmville, Virginia, a small town, 
much there is a Baptist church that in a way is 
a good representative of the down-town or 
institutional church so strongly advocated 
by many Church leaders. The auditorium 
is large and attractive. ‘‘ It is the central 
club-house of the Baptist part of the com- 
munity. Various organizations meet 
there, entertainments and lectures are 
given, and the whole social life centers 
there. The unifying and directing force is, 
however, in religious exercises of some 
sort. The result of this is not so much 
that recreation and social life have become 
stiff and austere, but rather that relig- 
lous exercises have acquired a free and 


SS es ee 


ae 


St. ATHANASIUS’ PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 
BRUNSWICK, GEORGIA 


First Baprist. CHURCH, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 


Religious Development 251 


easy expression and in some respects 
“serve aS amusements. For instance, the 


“camp-meeting is a picnic with incidental 


J 


sermons and singing; the rally of the 


-eountry churches, called the ‘ big meetin’,’ 


‘is the occasion of the pleasantest social in- 


terecourse, with a free barbecue; the Sun- 
day-school convention and the various 
preachers’ conventions are occasions of 


reunions and festivities. Even the weekly 


Sunday service serves as a pleasant meet- 
ing-place for working people who find little 
time for visiting during the week... . 

“‘ From these facts, however, one must 
not hastily form the conclusion that the re- 
ligion of such churches is hollow or their 
spiritual influence wanting. While under 
present circumstances the Negro church 
cannot be simply a spiritual agency, but 
must also be a social, intellectual, and eco- 
nomic center, it nevertheless is a spiritual 
center of wide influence that carries noth- 
ing immoral or baneful. The sermons are 
apt to be fervent repetitions of an ortho- 
dox Calvinism ... with strong condem- 
nation of the grosser sins and of gossip 
and ‘ meanness.’ .. . There are long-con- 
tinued revivals, but with fewer of the 


Church Also 
Social Center 


252 The Upward Path 


wild scenes of excitement that used to be 
the rule.’’ 

Churchesin In the city of Atlanta, where there was 
in 1900 a Negro population of 35,727, there 
are fifty-four churches—twenty-nine Bap- 
tist and twenty-one Methodist—and only 
four of other denominations. Their united 
membership is 16,261 and church property 
is valued at $252,508. Some of the 
churches have good buildings and large 
congregations. Some of them are in debt 
and some are small and the membership 
poor. The characters of the pastors are 
pronounced good, and their education 
fair, though there are some exceptions. 
The education of the members varies from 
‘* fair 7?) to:‘* very, pogie am 

Lares and Small Many of the most influential wealthy 
churches of this city are Baptist, while 
others of that denomination are among the 
poorest. One of the latter class claims 
only six active members and another only 
fourteen, while one of the first class has 
1,560 active members that include some of 
the best colored people of the city and has 
less than a hundred illiterate persons. 
The pastor has a good character and a 


1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 8, pp. 81, 82. 


| Religious Development — 253 
good education. It has one of the largest 
Sunday-schools in the city, supports two 
missions, and does a large amount of char- 
ity work. 

One of the largest Methodist churches 
in Atlanta has 500 active members and is 
composed of the best class of working peo- 
ple with a large number of educated peo- 
ple and graduates of schools. The pastor 
is ‘‘ a gentleman and an honest man.’’ It 
supports a salaried deaconess to take 
charge of its charitable work. It does 
much for its young people, having a large 
Sunday-school, besides classes in cooking 
and sewing and a week-day class in relig- 
ious training. Another Methodist church 
has 600 active members, and a total mem- 
bership of 1,400 composed of some of the 
most influential and cultured colored peo- 
ple in the city, a considerable number of 
them being school-teachers and property 
owners. The church is a handsome edifice 
that cost $50,000 and seats 3,000 people. 
It expends much in charity, and last year 
contributed $360 for missions. The pastor 
has a good character and a good education. 

The pastors of the Congregational, 
Episcopal, and Presbyterian Churches of 


Activities of 
Other Atlanta 
Churches 


Other 
Denominations 
in Atlanta 


Conditions in 
Richmond 


Descriptions are 
MT ypieal 


254 The Upward Path 


Atlanta are described as having excellent 
characters and as finely educated. Most of 
the members are educated and a large per 
cent. are business and professional men 
and women. The four have a combined 
membership of 883. 

Conditions at Richmond, Virginia, are 
similar to those in Atlanta. There are 
fewer churches, but these have a larger 
membership and their church buildings are 
better. In fact, these conditions with some 
modifications are found in many cities of 
the South. 

These descriptions of different classes 
of city and country churches in Georgia 
and Virginia may serve as illustrations 
of the conditions existing throughout the 
South, varying more or less according 
to the local conditions of education, 
wealth, and personal preference. There 
are some good and some bad preachers, 
some educated and some ignorant congre- 
gations, some handsome churches and 
some dirty hovels. Many churches are in 
debt. The preachers in the country 
churches and small towns are generally 
poorly paid, but they usually live as well 
as their congregations, who are as liberal 


Religious Development 255 


whole are neither better nor worse. 
"In New York City there are not less 
= 30,000 Negroes who are crystallized 

round three most undesirable centers. 
There are nine churches and three mis- 
sions belonging to the different denomina- 
tions. ‘‘ The aggregate church membership 
is very little less than 4,000. The average 
attendance upon worship at night (nobody 
there attends a colored church to any ex- 
tent except at night) is nearly 3,000... . 
There are only 1,725 pupils in the Sunday- 
schools, with an average attendance of 
1200. There is a lack of competent 
teachers and of means to procure better 
facilities, and many families are too poor 
to supply decent clothing for their chil- 
dren. . . . The church property is valued 
at $617,500, with an indebtedness on it of 
$100,000, while less than $100,000 has been 
sontributed by white people to the aid of 
these better places of worship... . A few 
dividual members are in comfortable 
sircumstances, but not one would be rightly 
sonsidered wealthy. . . . The colored ten- 


New York City 
Churches 


Conditions in 
Philadelphia 


Conditions in 
Chicago 


256 The Upward Path ‘ 


ants pay a higher rent than any othe: 
class, and they must feed and clothe them 
selves with all the chances in the industria 
field against them. . . . There is a constan 
stream of colored immigrants from th 
South, mostly unskilled laborers, and thei 
simple Southern faith does not seem t 
stand very well the chilling touch of ¢ 
Northern atmosphere. . . . Many refusi 
to affiliate with our churches. . . . Expose 
to the temptations of city life, the numbe: 
of them that drift back into sin is appall 
inet? 

In 1900 Philadelphia had 62,613 Ne 
groes. There were fifty-five churches ij 
all, with 13,000 members and propert 
valued at $910,000. ‘‘The social life cen 
ters in the church and this central club 
house tends to become more and more lux 
uriously furnished. . . . The average Ni 
gro preacher in this city is a shrewd man 
ager, a respectable man, a good talker, ; 
pleasant companion, but neither learne 
nor spiritual, nor a reformer. The mora 
standards are set by the congregation a 
vary from church to church.’ ? 


Conditions are much better in Hast 
1‘* The Religious Condition of New York City,’’ 58-62. 
2 DuBois, ‘‘ The Philadelphia Negro,’’ 204. 


Religious Development 257 


cities than in Chicago. The N egro popula- 
tion there was over 30,000 in 1900, and 
out of that number there were only about 
9,000 active Church members reported in 
the thirty-two churches. Only sixteen of 
these churches own the places where 
they worship, and all but two carry large 
debts. All church property is valued 
at $178,800. Some of the preachers are 
reported as ‘‘ immoral,’’ or ‘ intemper- 
ate,’’ or ‘‘ dishonest;’’ some of the congre- 
gations are described as ‘“‘ intelligent,”’ 
“rather intelligent,’? and << ignorant.”’ 
* As a rule the churches are marked with 
nefficiency and a lack of a proper regard 
‘or the moral development of the people in 
1onesty, sexual purity, and other virtues. 
The larger churches, some of them impos- 
ng edifices, are largely attended by fash- 
onably dressed people. The smaller ones 
lave a hard struggle to exist. There is a 
onstant demand for money in all of 
hem.’? ‘‘ The young people of the intel- 
ectual class are not attracted to the 
burch. . . . One of the largest churches 
et a premium upon ignorance and drove 
he younger element from the church. . . . 
\ very small percentage of our profes- 


Standards of Life 
Being Raised 


Large Mass to be 
Uplifted 


258 The Upward Path t 
sional men and women are regular in their 
church attendance.’’ 4 | 

‘< The standards of life are being raised, 
and there is a marked improvement in the 
matter of purity of life,’’ says Dr. H. B. 
Frissell, the President of Hampton Insti- 
tute, who has had twenty-one years of ex 
perience in the schools and homes of the 
colored people. There are various grades 
of morality among Negroes (as among 
other people), and a vast work yet remain: 
to be done for them and by them that the} 
may be fully Christianized, but it is due t 
them that they ‘‘ be sometimes judged bj 
their best and not always by their worst.’ 

Large masses of the people both on th 
plantations and in city slums are fearfully 
ignorant and immoral. They are still un 
der the sway of superstition; there is scan 
ty school training in many rural district 
for only a few months in the year; there i 
nothing from the better outside life t 
stimulate mind or spirit; no influence ex 
cept in the church for their uplift, and 
alas! this is often lacking because thi 
preacher is no whit above themselve 
either in knowledge or morality. ; 


1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 8. 


Religious Development 259 


‘‘ Tt has been said that the Negro plan- 
ation preacher is the curse of the people. 
Jonesty, truth, and purity are not taught, 
cause neither he nor the people have 
ome to realize that these virtues are es- 
ential to the religious life. The ethical 
ower of Christianity is scarcely felt. The 
ime is ripe for a forward gospel campaign 
n the great, needy ‘ back country ’ of the 
slack Belt.’’ 1 

A campaign is needed that will include 
oth the evangelist and the pastor, who 
hould be a patient instructor in right- 
ousness. These people need not only to 
ecept the truth, but to be established and 
uilt up in the truth—to be Christianized 
is well as evangelized. 

It is coming to be more and more a habit 
f thought and speech to put ethics and 
motion on different sides of the religious 
alances, and to presuppose that where the 
atter exists to any great degree the 
ormer is lacking. Growing out of this 
iew,.a demand almost is made upon the 
Yegro to repress his emotional nature, to 
orbid its expression in his religious ser- 
ices, and by this to give evidence that he 


1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 8. 


Plantations 
in Need 


Call for General 
Campaign 


Religious 
Nature of 
the Negro 


260 The Upward Path 


has progressed in the true religious life 
and attained to the ethical stage. What 
would Wesley and Whitefield and Finney 
and hundreds of great ‘‘ preachers of 
righteousness ’’ in the past, and Evan 
Roberts, one of the greatest evangelists of 
to-day, say of this docirine of repression? 
Eamotional That the Negro has an emotional relig- 
Misunderstood ion has been dwelt upon in the discussions 
of the spiritual side of his life and counted 
against his possession of the real religious 
experience. His shouting, moans of grief, 
and tears of joy, fervent ejaculations, 
vivid experiences, all are regarded as sim- 
ply the physical excitement of the ignorant 
and often of the immoral. A protest must 
be entered here against such misunder- 
standing of the Negro Christian who thus 
expresses his emotion. Of course there 
may be, and unquestionably are, many 
hypocrites among them (certainly there 
are among white people), who thus ape 
what they think will give the appearance 
of piety, and many who transcend all the 
bounds of propriety, even decency. Of 
these there are a great number whose 
every-day lives are far from being pious 
or moral. These and their demonstrations 


Religious Development 261 


are the counterfeit of the real Christians 
tho ‘‘ let their joys be known,’’ and their 
consistent lives should receive Church 
discipline, and firm restraint should be put 
upon their unseemly exercises. These per- 
sons should not, however, be taken as a 
type of a large body of Christians. 
The Christian religion is based on the 
emotion of love. Jesus said the first and 
sreatest commandment was to love God, 
and the second to love mankind, and that 
on these two ‘‘ hang all the law and the 
prophets. 7”? The fruits of the Spirit are 
expressed in the terms of emotion—‘ love, 
y, peace ’’—and out of these comes as a 
natural growth a righteous life. Since, ac- 
cording to Christ’s words, all true Chris- 
tians possess an emotional religion, the 
seen difference in them must be that some 
desire and are able to control those emo- 
tions in their outward expression and 
some do not. There are three classes of 
people who are noticeably lacking in self- 
control of any kind—young children, ig- 
norant people, and mentally or morally 
weak people. 
The Negro is a child race in its de- 
velopment. In the African wilds they did 


Christian 
Religion Emotion 
of Love 


Emotional 
Expression 
Varies in Races 
and Individuals 


Naturally a 
Religious 
Temperament 


i 


262 The Upward Path 


not learn how to control either their emo- 
tions or appetites, and these grew weak 
through indulgence. In slavery they were 
controlled in everything else more than 
in these. Self-control means self-mastery 
and belongs to maturity of life, and 
is the result of mental and moral train- 
ing. There are very many Negroes, as we 
have seen, who are very ignorant, and 
these, like ignorant, untrained people of 
other races, are easily swayed by their 
feelings, whatever they may be, and give 
uncontrolled expression to them. It is also 
true that some races are more demonstra- 
tive than others—the Latin races more 
than the Teutonic, the Negro more than 
the Indian—some individuals more than 
others of the same race, and even of the 
same family. 

The Negro as a race may be said to have 
a religious temperament. He has heart 
power, the power of loving, and a vivid 
imagination that lays hold with strong 
faith on the unseen. When he has come 
into the Christian life and before he has 
learned self-control he finds great satisfac- 
tion in giving outward expression to the 
deep feelings that fill his heart and over- 


Religious Development 263 


aster him. As self-control is gained, the 
tward, physical demonstrations grad- 
jally cease with him as with the educated 
f other races. While the ignorant masses 
of Negroes, especially in the rural dis- 
tricts, have not outgrown the ‘‘ noisy meet- 
ing,’’? the process of evolution along the 
educational and social lines is manifested 
in that the better educated, more refined 
Rlesroes have left these things behind 
them. It would be as genuine a surprise to 
some of their best city congregations to 
hear a shout in their midst as such a 
demonstration would be in a neighboring 
white church. 
- While all this is true, a protest must be 
entered against the idea that because a 
Christian, white or black, man or woman, 
gives outward manifestation to the in- 
ward joy, therefore there is no intelligent 
conception of divine truths or that there is 
a lack of their ethical expression in the life. 
During the days of slavery, many of those 
who were ‘‘ shouting Christians ’’ were 
also living members of the body of Christ, 
and walked in their integrity uncondemned 
before God and man, and there are such 
persons living to-day whose godly, unsel- 


Emotion and 
Ethics Possible 
Companions 


Soul Culture and 
Mental Rete 
e 


264 The Upward Path ; 


fish lives would be an example to some who 
have better control over their emotions. 
The Negroes as a race may not yet possess 
the highly cultured conscience that would 
enable them to deal with fine turns of 
casuistry and hair-splitting ethics, but let 
them have time—the processes of develop- 
ment in the spirit world are as slow as in 
the natural—give them time and help them 
to know God’s Word and love God’s will, 
and the hope may be entertained that they 
will grow into a race of good men and 
women who are good because they love 
God and delight to do his will. 

God grant that soul culture may be kept 
in line with mental culture in the Negro’s 
progress! There is every reason to hope 
that it will be, since much of the help that 
has come to him has come from the Church 
of God, and, still more, because of his own 
religious temperament. In God’s great 
plan for the redemption of the world, who 
can say what part of his purpose is re- 
served for this race to accomplish? Let 
the race look to it that it be ready to carry 
out that purpose when made manifest by 
him who rules the hearts and destinies of 
men and of worlds. 


AND 


Religious Development 265 


SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VII 


wu: To ESTIMATE THE NEGRO’S RELIGIOUS PROGRESS 
7 


THE PRESENT RELIGIOUS NEEDS AMONG THE 


NEGROES 


1* 
2.* 
: 3. 


c 4. 


Os 
Jag 


12. 
; pire? 


14. 
15.* 


ee 


Deseribe the Negro’s religion when he came to 
America. 

What was his idea of the relation of moral 
conduct to his religion? 

Is it an easy task to supplant old beliefs and 
superstitions? Why not? 

By what organizations was the first missionary 
work done among the Negroes? 

Deseribe the beginning of the work done by 
your denomination. 

What was the relation of the whites in the 
South to these missionary efforts? 

How were the missionaries received by the 
owners and slaves on plantations? 

What denomination in the South was especially 
active in the campaign for the aboliton of slay- 
ery? 

How did the antislavery movement retard 
missionary effort? 

Tabulate the progress in religious development 
among the Negroes up to the time of the Civil 
War. 

Describe the attitude of the two races in the 
South toward each other immediately after the 
war. 

What was the effect of these conditions upon 
the religious life of the Negro? 

What conclusions would you reach in estimat- 
ing the growth of Negro indepei:.ent Churches? 
In what directions are they best developed? 
Where do you consider conditions more favor- 


mye \ yieaw 
PA. ee 


266 The Upward Path 


able for the religious development of the Ne 
gro in the rural or urban communities, in th 
North or the South? State reasons. a 
16.* Can the Negroes provide for their own religious 
needs? Give reasons for and against. 
17.* If you had $50,000 to invest in the religious ur 
lift of the Negroes, where would you place i 
and why? : 
18* Sum up in the order of importance what yo 
consider the greatest and most pressing relig 
ious needs among the Negroes. 


REFERENCES FOR FurtuHer Stupy.—CHapter VII 


Religious Work Among Negroes.* 
DuBois: The Souls of the Black Folk, X. 
Washington and DuBois: The Negro in th 
South, IV. 
Whipple: Negro Neighbors, IV. 


1 For the most recent information regarding the religious cor 
dition of the Negro, the denominational home mission magazine 
should be read. 


HE NEXT STEP: NEED AND SUPPLY 


I would not presume to speak dogmatically as to - 
mind of God with reference to the future status of f 
Negro. . . . On what specific lines the race will move 
through the coming centuries, I dare not attempt to 
prophesy. But I do know that all our dealings wi 
these people should be in spirit and according to the 
ethics of the Man of Galilee. What is best for them 
now should be the measure of present duty, leaving the 
future to the hands of him who knows the end from the 
beginning. And we must insist that the Negro have 
equal opportunity with every American citizen to fulfil 
to himself the highest purposes of an all-wise and benefi- 
cent Providence. 

—Charles B. Galloway ; 


The slaves brought into the South a few contami 
ago, in ignorance, in superstition, and weakness, are now 
a free people, multiplied into 8,000,000; they are sur- 
rounded, protected, encouraged, educated in hand, heart, 
and head, given the full protection of the law, the high- 
est justice meted out to him through courts and legi 
lative enactments, they are stimulated and not oppresse 
made citizens and not aliens, made to understand by 
word and act that in proportion as they show them- 
selves worthy to bear responsibilities, the greater oppor- 
tunities will be given them. I see them loving you, trust- 
ing you, adding to the wealth, the intelligence, the re- 
nown of each Southern commonwealth. In turn, I see 
you confiding in them, ennobling them, beckoning them 
on to the highest success, and we have all been made 
to appreciate in full that, 


** The slave’s chain and the master’s alike are broken, ‘ 
The one curse of the race held both in tether; 

They are rising, all are rising, 

The black and white together.”’ 


—Booker T. Washington 


a 


Vill 
THE NEXT STEP: NEED AND SUPPLY 


W°* have seen the great extent of mis- 
sionary effort for the Negro which 
has been made along educational lines, and 
‘also that to the schools established and 
maintained for his benefit is due not only 
his mental development, but much of the 
religious advancement that has come to 
him since his emancipation. We have also 
seen that missionary work for him has not 
been limited to the schools and that which 
emanated from the schools. Direct work 
has been done in building churches and 
supporting the regular ministry and, to 
some extent, lay missionaries. The very 
fact that so much has been done in the past 
with such large results only emphasizes 

‘the importance of continuing through this 
work to obey our Lord’s command. Not 
only did he commission us to preach the 
gospel to every creature, but to ‘‘ make 
disciples of all the nations,’’ and to teach 


Past Progress 
an Incentive 


270 The Upward Path } 
them to ‘‘ observe all things ’’ that he com 
manded. To those acquainted with the 
facts it is unnecessary to say that we have 
not yet taught this nation to know and ob- 
serve the ‘‘ all things’’ of Christ. Nor 
does this statement surprise those who 
have knowledge of missionary work among 
any people. 

cua It would afford both an interesting and 

Waste an inspiring study to take the records of 
each denomination and sum up the united 
efforts of the Church of God to Christian- 
ize the American Negro. From such a 
study a new light of hope would come with 
the knowledge of how much the Negro 
Churches themselves have done and are 
doing for the redemption of their own race. 
But this study cannot at present be made 
intelligently because of the lack of such 
records in usable form. In any effort to 
gather the facts concerning the education 
and evangelization of the Negro one must 
face a situation none the less difficult to 
deal with because of its frequent occur- 
rence in the work of the Church of God; 
that is, the lack of concerted and harmoni- 
ous action between the different denomina- 
tions composing the Church. This has 


_ The Next Step: Need and Supply 271 


caused much waste of funds and energy in 
‘an overlapping that duplicates effort in 
‘some localities and in some departments, 
and leaves others neglected; and, worse 
still, it has engendered a harmful rivalry 
between the denominations. 
_ That we have reached the dawn of a bet- 
ter day is clearly manifest. The spirit of 
unity and codéperation is in the air, and 
great Church organizations are putting 
aside distrust, division, and rivalry, and 
are drawing closer together, saying: ‘‘ We 
be brethren, the sons of one Father, and 
must go about our Father’s business, lov- 
ing one another even as he hath loved us.”’ 
One great step in this direction was the re- 
‘cent organization of the Home Missions 
Council, a federation: of Home Mission 
Boards, having for its purpose the unifica- 
‘tion of the work of the Churches repre- 
sented in it, or their harmonious coopera- 
tion in that work. 

The first duty of the Council was the ap- 
‘pointment of a committee or commission 
on comity. This committee should give its 
immediate consideration to the work where 
its offices are most needed—missionary 
work for the Negroes. At present the mis- 


Dawn of a 
Better Day 


Commission on 
Comity 


272 The Upward Path ; 


sion boards are each doing its Negro work 
as if it alone was in the field, knowing little 
or nothing of what others are doing, with 
the results as above stated. To these 
boards should be issued by the Council 
blanks upon which to tabulate in clear, ex- 
plicit statements the locality, extent, char- 
acter and cost of its work for the Negro; 
giving the date of establishing the work, 
the amount of money expended since that 
time, and value of property accumulated. 
With this should go also an account of the 
methods used, frankly stating their suc- 
cess or failure along different lines. These 
reports should be carefully considered by 
the committee, summarized, and tabulated 
as a whole, so that a clear view may be ob- 
tained by each denomination of the work 
of the others and of the joint work of the 
Church of God, of which they are now in 
hurtful ignorance. To this summing up 
of the work of the Church the committee 
should be prepared to add similar statis- 
tics of the educational work for the Negro 
of every kind that has been done, and is’ 
being done, by the national and state gov- 
ernments; also of the large gifts made to 
this work by philanthropists outside of 
Church channels. | 


fare ee 


The Next Step: Need and Supply 273 


Youncil presupposes a desire to profit by 
he information thus gathered in the future 
operations of the boards. If this has the 
oped-for result, the work and claims of 
each Church being weighed and properly 
considered by the council as to locality, 
character, and success, the outcome will be 
the acceptance by each of its rightful place 
and in its doing its best where it is most 
needed. Then such questions as these will 
have a reasonable answer: Why should one 
small city have three rival institutions for 
Negro youth, while other cities and large 
rural districts are left without one? 
Would not one or two well-conducted, well- 
equipped normal schools in a State be bet- 
ter than tacking on a ‘‘ normal depart- 
ment’? to many academies that can 
scarcely maintain their academic course? 
When the great need of the large mass of 
the race can be met only by the public 
‘school system of the State, for which there 
may be insufficient funds, does not that 
‘seem a better direction for philanthropic 
gifts than for them to be used in inaugu- 
rating new enterprises for the benefit of a 
few who can have their need supplied else- 


The submission of this matter to the ¢j 


Advantages of 
peration 


I 
274 The Upward Path ie q : 


where? Might it not be wise for some in- 
stitutions to give up their futile efforts 
to maintain a college department and what- 
ever false glory that name has given them, 
and to adopt the more honest name and 
purpose of an academy or high school? 
Their loss would be only a seeming one, 
while there would come from it a real gain 
to the true college. | 
Strengihes Wau The effect of mutual knowledge, coupled 
with the purpose to codperate, would be to 
quicken zeal by making it more intelligent, 
to raise the standard of work by a proper 
recognition of its quality, and to secure 
more permanent as well as spiritual re- 
sults. It would increase and strengthen 
the best things, and lead to the abandon- 
ment of that which is not worth while. 
Better one good thing well done than many 
indifferent things half done. The advice 
of Poor Richard is good in missionary 
work as well as elsewhere: ‘‘ Learn what. 
you can’t do, and cease trying; learn what 
you can do, and do it with all your might.’”” 
Negro Charme Not only should the white Churches work. 
under rules of comity in their missionary 
efforts for the Negroes, but the Negroes aa 
individuals and as Churches should recog- 


JUBILEE CLUB, ST. PAUL NoRMAL AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, 
LAWRENCEVILLE, VIRGINIA 


STUDENTS, BisHop PAYNE Divinity SCHOOL, PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA 


_ The Next Step: Need and Supply 275 


nize the wisdom of this, and unite with 
them in hastening the day of their deliver- 
ance from those things which have held 
them back from their highest and best. In 
his time of weakness, ignorance, and bitter 
need, the Negro has had the strength and 
wisdom of others to support and guide him. 
He has had the hand of benevolence over- 
flowing with gifts constantly extended to 
him, but he must not linger at the ‘‘ Beau- 
tiful Gate ’’ of charity; he must heed as a 
clarion voice in the soul the command, ‘‘ In 
the name of Jesus Christ, arise and walk!’’ 
He must stand and walk on his own feet 
and earn his right to a place not only in 
the life and work of this world but in the 
kingdom of God, taking for his watchword, 
<¢ Saved to serve.’’ Yes, saved to serve 
his own day and generation and to make 
it possible for those who follow to live 
more truly and nobly. Many men and 
- women among them are consecrating their 
lives to this saving work for their race, and 
still more are giving to it liberally, not 
only of their abundance, but out of their 
poverty. 
It is well to pause, before we close this 
record of the evolution of the Negro race, 


What is the 
Next Step ? 


276 The Upward Path " 
and consider what shall be the next on- 
ward step toward his full development in — 
Christian life. What needs to be done in 
the lines of work begun, and what new ef- 
forts should be put forth? 

Need of the ‘That there is a great need of improve-— 
ment in the Negro ministry is an evident 
fact. To simply say, ‘‘ they must be bet-— 
ter educated,’’ is an easy way to escape 
the question. Education for the Negro 
preacher means as much as it does for the 
white man; but it is well known that the 
fact of a preacher’s being well educated 
does not necessarily give him success in 
dealing with the ignorant mass of the 
people. The education of the Negro 
preacher, especially the man who is to be 
a pastor, must be of such a character as — 
will keep him in close sympathetic touch 
with the natural life of the people, so that — 
he will know how to ‘‘ lead on gently ’”’ 
these ‘‘ little ones ’’ of God’s kingdom. ~ 
Knowing their trials, temptations, ignor- 
ance, superstition, and sins, he should use — 
a language that they can understand, in 
order to administer comfort and to 
strengthen, teach, and rebuke without driv- 
ing them away by an assumption of su-— 


~* 


ene 


The Next Step: Need and Supply 277 


periority. He should be endued with the 
Spirit and by wisdom spiritually received 
so present the love and purity of the gospel 
and its rewards, both here and hereafter, 
that if the emotional member must shout 
it may be the heart’s true expression, 
based upon knowledge of the truth. He 
also needs to know how to discipline his 
flock and deal with flagrant sins impar- 
tially and justly, manifesting hatred of sin 


even while loving the sinner. And his life - 


must exemplify his teaching. 

It is not simply education that is needed, 
but education of the right kind. He must 
not only know books, but he must know the 
people. He must not oniy know the Bible, 
but he must know how to use it as the sword 
of the Spirit, a light to the feet, a 
message of comfort. He must live a right- 
eous life, above reproach. He should have 
business sense, social tact, patience, perse- 
verance, courageous hope, and, above all, 
unfailing love. This is the ideal pastor. 
Yes, and it ought to be the standard to- 
ward which all pastors should aim. The 
ideal Negro preacher should have all those 
qualities of head and heart that the 
priestly office requires of any other race, 


Right Kind of 
Education 


278 The Upward Path i 


‘ 
for he, as all who fill the sacred office, 
stands as an ambassador of God before his 
people and as an example for their lives. 

Beinreachers are. = Where are such men to be found? God 
is able to raise up Negro men, is raising 
them up, ‘‘ called to be apostles ’’ to their 
race, even as he has done at other times for 
other peoples, and often where and when 
they were least expected. But it remains 
for those who pray for such ‘‘ wise shep- 
herds ’’ to make them ready to feed and 
care for the flock. The men who are at the 
head of their educational institutions and 
theological seminaries need to pray also 
for themselves, that God may help them 
to a better understanding of the Negro 
race and its need, and may give them wis- 
dom to teach their pastors how to meet it. — 

Evangelists Outside the regular pastorate there is 
another factor of power at work in the 
Church—the Negro evangelists. Some of 
these are of good and some of indifferent — 
quality; some are responsible to the 
Church for the character of work done, 
others are responsible only to themselves — 
for their work and its results. To enforce 
that which is good and hinder that which is ~ 
bad, there should be missionary evangel-— 


~a 


The Next Step: Need and Supply 279 


‘ists prepared for the work and appointed 
to it by mission boards to whom they will 


be responsible and from whom they will 
receive as far as necessary their support. 

These evangelists should be something 
more than ‘‘ heralds ”’ of the gospel, or ex- 


_horters to sinners; they should not pass 


hastily from one ignorant church to an- 


other, leaving their converts to slip back 
for lack of instruction in the truth which 


they have accepted. They should be not 


only spiritual men whose lives are above 
reproach, but men well trained in the scrip- 


tural requirements of righteous living, and 


be able to teach its ethics plainly and 


frankly as a rule for the daily life. Be- 


sides the preaching services they should 
hold simple Bible readings, and before 
leaving a community they ought to organ- 
ize Bible study classes in the church, giv- 
ing their leaders very practical instruc- 


tions as to how to continue the work and 
_ directing them to the proper helps in their 


study. There were evangelists of power 
among the Negroes in the olden times, such 


as ‘‘ Black Harry ’’ and many others; and 
who that has heard the Bible readings of 


Amanda Smith can doubt that there exist 


Work of 
Evangelists 


Extension to 
R ions 


Plantation 
Missions 


| 
er + 
| 
| 


280 The Upward Path 


to-day men and women among them who } 
are not only ‘‘ fervent in spirit,’’ but are 
able to teach the deep things of the Spirit, ‘ 
and from them, righteous living. ; 

These evangelistic efforts coupled with 
Bible study should be extended into the ru-_ 
ral districts, where they are greatly needed — 
far more than in the cities, there they would — 
be of great value to the ignorant masses — 
who can never have the advantage of much — 
if any Bible instruction in the schools. The 
pastors would be greatly helped by these — 
evangelists in their future work, if they are — 


the men that they should be to have charge . 


of churches. 
We have seen how in the past a great 
work for the Negro was done through what 


* 


was called ‘‘ plantation missions.’? Elim- 


inate the fact of bond slavery and on many © 


large cotton, sugar, and rice plantations ; 
to-day many conditions may be found simi- — 


lar to those of the past, owing to the pov- 


erty and ignorance of large numbers of — 


Foal nat 


farm laborers and their families. These 
people need a work done for them some- 4 


what similar to that which was done for _ 


their ancestors. They are too ignorant to 


~, 


know their own needs, and if they knew — 


ld 


WOMEN’S BIBLE TRAINING CLASS, Hows INSTITUTE, 
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE 


St. Mark’s CHAPEL, WILSON, NorTH CAROLINA 


The Next Step: Need and Supply 281 


j them they are too poor to supply them, as 
they cannot pay the salaries of the right 
kind of preachers nor build decent places 
of worship. Although some work is being 
- done on plantations, the Church of to-day 
should meet this opportunity as generously 
as it was met by the Church and the mas- 
ters in the past. Let the wisdom and 
money of mission boards of white and col- 
ored Churches unite in establishing planta- 
tion missions by building neat, plain 
churches where they are needed and by 
paying the salaries of missionary workers, 
men and women, who are consecrated and 
qualified. Put circuits of several planta- 
tions each in charge of men. who cannot 
only preach on the Sabbath but teach Bible 
classes and do true, instructive pastoral 
visiting, and a great change for the better 
would be manifest in a few years. 
Here, too, is a large opportunity for the Workfor ia 
colored deaconess or Bible reader to visit Bible Readers 
and work in the home, to uplift and guide 
the women and girls as no man can. She 
could also hold mothers’ meetings, teach 
sewing schools and Bible classes, and in 
many respects prove an angel of mercy as 
_ weil as a teacher of righteousness on many 


City Missions 


Methods 


282 The Upward Path 


a plantation in the ‘‘ back country.’’ 
Ought not the large number of Church 
schools to furnish the women suited to 
such work, and might not the money be ob- 
tained for the specific training which they 
would need? 

The Negro life in the city presents the 
same extremes that are to be found in the 
white urban population. There are the 
richest, best educated, most refined repre- 
sentatives of the race, who have good 
churches and good homes and are not in 
any way to be considered as objects of mis- 
sionary effort. In fact, it is through this 
class that much of the city missionary 
work of the future should be done for the 
redemption of the Negro slums. The sad 
conditions existing in these wretched quar- 
ters do not differ greatly from those exist- 
ing in slums inhabited by white people. 

The kind of work done successfully in 
the Negro slum and the methods used do 
not vary materially from those that have 
been successfully employed for the same 
class of people of other races.- The Chris- 
tian settlement and institutional church, — 
with all the various forms of service for 
which they stand, would be very effective 


The Next Step: Need and Supply 283 


if properly managed and sustained in both 
Northern and Southern cities. 

Possibly their influence upon the Negro 
would be more effective than upon any 
other people, for the Negro, even in the 
slums, has not yet become alienated from 
the Church nor has he given up Church at- 
tendance, as is the case with the denizens of 
foreign slums unless they are Roman Cath- 
olics. The Church is still the center of 
his social as well as religious life, and he is 
willing to receive from it instruction and 
direction. The Negro slum is ready for 
the installation of such work in the midst 
of its population, and the Churches should 
not lose to-day’s opportunity to reach the 
hundreds of thousands there w.:0 through 
disease, ignorance, and sin are sinking 
lower and lower in the scale of life. ‘‘ Out 
of the depths ’’ they are erying to the 
Church of God and in the name of God the 
Church should go to their deliverance. 

The methods of accomplishing this work 
must, of course, be fitted to the locality, 
its conditions, and its needs. It will be 
necessary that the missionary be a friend, 
freely admitted into the home, if the home, 
where the need is greatest, is to be bene- 


Present 
Opportunity 


Kind of Workers 


284 The Upward Path 


fited. Admission usually is not difficult 
with this impulsive, affectionate, and in 
many respects unreserved race. Once con- 
vince them that their good is desired, by 
going about the work kindly and patiently 
with consideration for their feelings, and 
their confidence is gained and their co- 
Operation secured. Consecrated, trained, 
_ colored men and women can do more effec- 
tive missionary work among their own peo- 

ple than can those of another race. 
Padkiae: Day nurseries and kindergartens are 
sarens valuable features of institutional work for 
the children of a race where the mother is 
so frequently the breadwinner and away 
from hor. They furnish the opportunity 
of impres:ing moral precepts and religious 
truths upon the child at its most impres- 
sionable age, and of forming habits for 
them of physical cleanliness. They also 
make possible the instruction of the 
mothers in the care of children and in 
maintaining sanitary conditions in their 
homes, the lack of which causes infant 
mortality, alarmingly great among Ne- 
groes. . 
Sewing Classes, Sewing classes for girls (giving them 


Cooking Schoo . 
mand Clubs the garments made by themselves) lead 


The Next Step: Need and Supply 285 


to the better making and repairing of com- 
fortable clothing, rather than the purchase 
of ragged, second-hand finery for which so 
much of their money is wasted. Kitchen- 
garden classes have been found especially 
interesting and helpful to half-grown girls 
because this objective teaching appeals to 
them. Cooking schools for older girls and 
women should give plain, practical instruc- 
tion as to the character of foods and their 
preparation in accordance with what their 
condition makes possible. Premiums given 
for well-prepared simple dishes would 
have a good effect by inciting to ambitious 
effort. The result of such instruction 
would be a healthier home for the house- 
keeper and more remunerative employ- 
ment for those who go out to service. 
Clubs for men, women, boys, and girls all 
have their beneficial results here as else- 
where. Playgrounds, miniature farming 
and truck-gardening, gymnasium with 
bathing facilities, well conducted and with 
proper instruction present most desirable 
preventive missionary work that is both 
destructive of evil and constructive of 
good. 

No missionary work for the Negro can 


Missionary 
Physicians 


Deaconesses and 
Trained Nurses 


286 The Upward Path ' 
be fully successful that does not consider 
his physical condition and seek to alleviate 
his suffermgs from preventive diseases by 
teaching sanitation in the home, personal 
cleanliness and chastity of habit, freedom 
from superstitious practises, and the rejec- 
tion of quacks and their nostrums. Of 
course poverty and ignorance will present 
obstacles to such work with the Negro as 
with the lower classes of other races, but 
these can be at least partly overcome by 
the use of right methods and by patience. 
To the foreign field the Church sends mis- 
sionary physicians as well as teachers and 
evangelists, and the same plan should be 
used in the home mission work of the 
Church. There is no phase of home mis- 
sions where this threefold work is more 
needed than among the Negroes. The 
trained Christian Negro as a missionary 
physician would be found invaluable in the 
slums of the cities, in mining camps, on 
plantations, and wherever the Negroes are 
congregated. 

In the home and domestic life lied! 
the largest opportunity for the missionary ; 
doctor as well as pastor. The colored 
deaconess and trained nurse also have here 


; The Next Step: Need and Supply 287 
a great and effectual door waiting wide 
open for their Christ-like ministry to the 
sorrowing, the suffering, and the erring. 
Many aching hearts among the poor, hard- 
working colored women, cowering under 
almost insupportable burdens, are await- 
ing the word of sympathy and hope to save 
them from despair and sin. Many there 
are, too, who must suffer and die and see 
their loved ones suffer and die because 
they are ignorant of those things that re- 
late to health and the care of the sick, 
knowledge that a nurse could impart. 
There are many young girls and older 
women whom the hand and prayer of the 
deaconess might keep from the path of sin, 
or lead back if their feet have already 
strayed. 

From whence are the workers for this 
the greatest home mission enterprise to 
come? Where else but from the Church 
schools and colleges for Negroes now being 
‘maintained largely by the Home Mission 
Boards. If the principals and teachers 
of these institutions are truly missionary 
‘im spirit, as they should be and as many 
‘of them are, they will instil the same spirit 
into their pupils and lead them to conse- 


Who will do 
this work? 


Knowledge of 
Spiritual Truth 
and Ethics 


Whites Must 
Continue to Help 


288 The Upward Path 


Big Aer st err ai OG 


crate their lives to the saving and opting 
of their people. 
Jn all the schools there should be a regu- 
lar thorough study of the Bible of such 
character as will not only give literary, his- 
torical, and geographical information, bag 
a knowledge of its spiritual truths an 
ethical lessons. The Bible so taught will 
not only be ‘‘ a savor of life unto life ’’ to 
the pupils, but make them men and women 
‘‘ prepared unto every good word and 
work,’’ when they go back to their homes 
to be teachers in the Sunday-schools and 
Bible study circles and to become mission- 
aries. It will give a rock basis on which 
men and women may build their profes- 
sional education, whether it be as 
preacher, teacher, physician, deaconess, or 
nurse. It will be as grappling-irons hold- 
ing the business man to honest dealings. 
It will be a strong wall around the Negro 
home and a shield to the virtue of woman. 
‘““My word. . . shall not return unto me 
void, ... but it shall prosper in the thing 
whereto I sent it,’’ is God’s promise. ; 
While much of this missionary work can 
best be done by the Negroes for their own 
people now, and the promise is bright for 


ee 


The Next Step: Need and Supply 289 


still more to be done by them in the future, 
with their fuller training, the time has not 
yet come for the white race to cease its 
help; nor will it come until we have done 
still more to develop this ‘‘ backward 
race,’’? which by a strange providence has 
been placed in the reach of our helping 
hand. There rests upon us the debt always 
due from the strong to the weak. White 
mission boards and white philanthropists 
North and South must continue yet longer 
to give to and guide the work of educating 
and Christianizing ‘‘ our brother in black.’’ 
At the same time they must be taught that 
self-help is the best help, and be encouraged 
and stimulated to continued and larger ef- 
forts for their own race. 

Tn the annals of the Church and philan- 
thropy not much recognition has been giv- 
en to the purely local work which has been 
done and is being done by Southern men 
and women to aid the Negro along every 
line of his progress. Possibly this is be- 
eause they have not exploited this work, 
but have set it down to the score of indi- 
vidual love and personal interest rather 
than made a church record of it. It would 
be difficult to find a Negro church, school, 


and Women 


Aid of White 
inistry 


Local Work for 
Laymen and 
omen 


290 The Upward Path 


orphanage, hospital, or any other institu 
tion projected by them to which Southern 
white people have not contributed by as: 
sisting either in its building or mainte 
nance. There is a continued outflow t 
them of benevolence in various forms from 
the white home, church societies, and pub: 
lic charities. 

In many Southern cities the white min 
istry is aiding the colored ministry im 
presenting the gospel in their pulpits when 
ever opportunity offers, and such oppor. 
tunities are not rare. In many instances 
they give practical and valuable aid to pas: 
tors in their studies and preparation o! 
sermons, with wholesome advice as t 
church methods and discipline. More oi 
this work perhaps should be done, bu 
those who understand fully the present 
situation will appreciate the many difficul 
ties in the way. Here, too, it is to be hopet 
that the future holds many possibilities 01 
brotherly help not now existing. 

Christian laymen and women also have 
a large local opportunity to help the col. 
ored people by teaching Sunday afternoot 
Bible classes, and in aiding them to plar 
and conduct various lines of work for so. 


The Next Step: Need and Supply 291 


ial and religious betterment, nor have 
hey been neglectful of this opportunity. 
sarge classes are being taught in the 
hurches, and smaller bands of Sunday- 
chool teachers and Christian workers are 
yeing instructed in private homes. There 
s also a great volume of personal Chris- 
jan work and industrial training done for 
hose who come into homes as domestic 
ervants. 

That Southern white Christians ought to 
lo much more in these lines is undoubtedly 
tue of them, as of those who have the 
ame opportunity in other sections for 
ther races. They know, though others 
nay not, how truly and nobly their parents 
worked for the civilizing and Christianiz- 
ng of the Negro slaves. The providence 
of God continues to entrust the fate of the 
Negro to the South. The South cannot es- 
ape the trust if it would; it should not 
vant to eseape it if it could. A large num- 
ber of its people are trying to fulfil nobly 
their duty to the Negro of to-day amid 
many hindrances. In doing this there will 


come a better knowledge, each of the other, 


on the best side, and a bettering of each 
other, because this Christly connection in 


Opportunity of 
South 


Hope Ahead 


292 The Upward Path 


Christian work will bring closer together 
those of both races who truly love thei 
Lord. 

The presence of two great races in ow 
land, living a close yet divided existence 
presents a unique situation in the history 
of the world. That there should be antag= 
onism and prejudice one toward the other 
is natural, since by nature they belong to 
the two divisions of the human family 
most diverse in racial qualities and tradi- 
tions. That there should be so little con- 
flict and so much personal kindliness is the 
marvel of those who look upon the situa 
tion from the outside. The spirit of help- 
fulness in the stronger race has been deni 
onstrated by unnumbered deeds of active 


Vv benevolence. These have been acknowl- 


edged by the less developed race wit 
grateful appreciation. Satisfactory re- 
sults for the latter are manifested in th 
fruits of industrial advancement, growing 
patriotism, mental activity, and a broader 
Christianity, and through and by it all 
there is a development of power from 
within, leading to a self-dependence and 
self-reliance that will require less and less 
from without. This gain for the one does 


— 


The Next Step: Need and Supply 293 


not mean loss for the other, but additional 
gain. There have been many places along 
the way which they have traveled together 
where an Ebenezer might have been set up, 
proclaiming to the world, ‘‘ Hitherto hath 
Jehovah helped us.’’ 

_ What is known as the Negro problem 
has been in the minds of the readers of this 
book as they scanned its every chapter. 
No attempt has been made to solve that 
problem, nor can any solution that has ever 
been offered be accepted as of value. It 
must be left to the prophets and statesmen 
yet to arise in both races who, with an all- 
wise, all-loving Heavenly Father, must 
work together to accomplish his divine will 
for the race. 

That there is a serious problem none can 
deny. Every race has its problems of exist- 
ence and development, as has every indi- 
vidual life in all its relations and efforts, 
and no race, as no man, liveth to itself or 
for itself alone. No real problem is sim- 
ple, and in its complexity it should be 
fairly estimated from every side. It must 
be remembered that the Negro problem is 
the Southern white man’s problem as well, 
and the latter has rights to be considered 


No Solution 
Offered 


The Color Line 


Involves Many 
Questions 


Justice to Both 
Races Demanded 


294 The Upward Path 


as well as the former—rights that pertain 
to the man as an individual and also to his 
race life. 

But the Negro problem involves much 

more than the color line. It presents anew 
the old questions of evangelization an 
education, labor and capital, poverty a 
crime, that are clamoring for answer all 
over the world. When these problems 
have received a just and righteous solu- 
tion, not much of the Negro problem will 
be left to solve. 

Whatever the problem that exists, it 
involves both races at the North and at the 
South, and its solution cannot be accom- 
plished by one race. It must be a dual 
work, not done separately but unitedly, 
with mutual trust and effort. It will re 
quire love and sacrifice from both, and also 
truth and justice from both. It will de- 
mand the highest, sanest thought of the 
trained and developed intellect of the two 
races to grasp and conjointly master the 
situation with all its complex conditions. 
It will require all the heroic courage and 
martyr faith of which both races are cap- 
able to struggle and faint not until the vie- 
tory shall come, as come it surely will. 


_ The Next Step: Need and Supply 295 


_ How any great national or religious 
problem is to be worked out through the 
years, God who works in us and through us 
alone knows. But that he has worked 
hitherto and is still working through us to 
accomplish his will for both races is mani- 
fest. The great processes by which it is to 
come are already in motion and their mo- 
mentum is increasing. The future is hidden 
from us, but faith sees beyond the veil and 
triumphantly cries, ‘‘ The Lord our God, 
the Almighty reigneth.’’ Not by chance but 
by his hand the world was made, and those 
that dwell upon it. By his hand does he 
sustain and guide the sun in its course, and 
by his hand the life of humanity in its de- 
velopment is directed step by step ever 
toward himself. All history proves this to 
be true in the past, and the God-implanted 
aspirations within us demand its truth for 
the future. This truth has in it the very 
essence of God’s nature, and is too broad 
and deep to be restricted to one world in 
his universe, far less to one race in our 
world. God’s truth means a justice to all 
that will not brook that any race be 
counted out of the great law of love which 
is over all for the good of all. 


The Lord 
Reigneth 


A Vision 


“Wait Thou for 
ehovah”’ 


296 The Upward Path 


I stood at an open window and looke 

upon an extended landscape. The sum 
mer sky was overspread with heavy clouds 
that cast dark shadows on all around me 
making nature’s beauty dim. But lookin 
out beyond I saw far ahead the sunshin 
lying golden on a distant mountain 
Watching with glad expectancy, I saw th 
clouds with their shadows gradually roll 
ing back, and the sunlit space widening an 
drawing ever nearer and nearer, until a 
last the whole land was flooded with it 
radiance. The sun looked down upon me— 
the clouds had passed away. 

Courage, doubting heart! Hope on, 
trusting heart, whether thou beatest in a 
white or black breast! The clouds have 
hung low, they still overshadow us in the 
present; but behind the clouds the Sun of 
Righteousness has light for the world. 
The joy of his redeeming presence draweth 
ever nearer, the clouds are rolling away, 
for with him there is light and life forever- 
more. ‘‘ Wait for Jehovah: be strong, an 
let thy aoe ile courage; yea, wait thou 
for Jehovah. 


_ The Next Step: Need and Supply 297 


| SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VIII 


Aim: To REALIZE THE PRESENT NEEDS AND OPPORTUNITY 
For CHRISTIAN SERVICE AMONG THE NEGROES 


is 


2. 


oee 


15.* 


Contrast the social and religious life of the 
Negro in Africa and the United States to-day. 
Has his experience in this country been a help 
to him? 

Has he made any contribution to the social 
and industrial life of our country? Discuss 
fully. 

Does the United States need the Negro, and 
why? 

Estimate the progress that the Negro has made, 
industrially, socially and religiously. 

What help in the upward path has the Negro 
had that the Anglo-Saxon did not have? 

Do you believe the Negro as a race is capable 
of still further progress, and why? 

In what directions and where do you consider 
the greatest opportunity for progress? 

What types of schools would you recommend, 
and by what agencies should they be directed? 
What kind of leaders are most needed? 

By whom are these leaders to be trained? 
What ‘types of religious leaders are most 
needed ? 

Where do you think there is the greatest re- 
ligious need at the present time? 

Are the needs among the Negroes in our 
cities any greater than among the poor of other 
races? 

Are our obligations any greater to the Negro 
than to the aliens? Give reasons. 

Upon whom does the responsibility for mis- 
sions to Negroes rest most heavily, and why? 


298 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER StTUDY.—CHAPTER 


The Future of the Negro 


17.* Do you know of any greater home mission 0 
18. 


19. 


The Upward Path 


portunity, in population, and in proximity 
Do you know of any more responsive pe 
than the Negroes? 

What is your personal responsibility? 


Baker: Following the Color Line, XIV. 
Conant: ‘‘ Future of the Negro,’’ Arena, Ju 
709. : 
Hart: ‘‘ Outcome of the Southern Race Que 
tion,’’ North American Review, July, 708. 
Merriam: The Negro and the Nation, XL. 
Miller: Race Adjustment, 133-151. 
Page: The Negro: The Southerner’s Probler 
VIII. 
Price: The Negro, XXIX. 
Stone: Studies in the American Race Proble 
Part V, Ch. III. 
Washington: The Future of the American } 
gro, I-VIII. 


ee 


APPENDIX A 


HYMN 


O li’] lamb out in de col’, 

De Mastah call you to de fol’, 
O 1171 lamb! 

He hyeah you bleatin’ on de hill; 

Come hyeah an’ keep yo’ mou’ning still, 
O 1i’1 lamb! 


De Mastah sen’ de shepud fo’f; 
He wandah souf, he wandah no’f, 
O 1i’1 lamb! 
He wandah eas’, he wandah wes’; 
De win’ a-wrenchin’ at his breas’, 
O 1171 lamb! 


Oh, tell de shepud whaih you hide; 
He want you walkin’ by his side, 

O i] lamb! 
He know you weak, he know you s0’; 
But come, don’ stay away no mo’, 

O 1i’1 lamb! 


An af’ah while de lamb he hyeah 
De shepud’s voice a-callin’ cleah— 
Sweet li’] lamb! 
He answah f’om de brambles thick, 
‘¢ O Shepud, I’s a-comin’ quick ’’— 
O 1171 lamb! 
—Paul Lawrence Dunbar 


From Lyrics of the Hearthstone. 


302 The Upward Path 


APPENDIX B 
NEGRO MELODIES* 


They believed in God as the maker and ruler of all 
things and sang: 
‘* He is King of kings; 
He is Lord of lords; 
No man works like him,’’ 


His omnipresence and close knowledge of our daily 


' 

lives was expressed in: § 
*€ Oh, he sees all you do, 

He hears all you say.’’ ; 


They believed in Jesus as the atoning Son of God, and — 
sang: 
‘« Ever see such a man as God? : 
He gave up his Son for to come an’ die, 
Gave up his Son for to come and die, 
Just to save my soul from a burning fire.’’ 


They saluted him as their King: 


‘* Reign, er reign, er reign, my Savior, 
Reign Mass’ Jesus er reign.’? 


They expressed their deep love as they sang: 


** Oh, when I come to die, 
Give me Jesus, give me Jesus, give me Jesus, 
You may have all the world, but give me Jesus.’? 


With voices trembling with unsimulated grief, they — 
sang of his death: 


1 The author is indebted to Proctor, ‘“‘ The Southern Workman,’” 
November, 1907, for some suggestions on these melodies. 


Appendixes 303 


*< Were you there when they crucified my Lord? 
Were you there when they nailed him to a tree? 

Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, trem- 
ble.’” 


‘ 

They believed in the Holy Spirit. No one could be a 
Christian without the ‘‘ witness of the Spirit ’’; no one 
, “could preach without a revelation of the Spirit; no 
“meeting could be successful without an outpouring of the 
‘Spirit clearly manifested. They sang: 


‘¢ When Peter was preachin’ at Pentecost, 
He was filled with the Holy Ghost,’’ 


and again: 
‘¢ Tf you want to ketch that heavenly breeze, 
Go down in the valley on yer knees. 
Go bow your knees upon de groun’ 
An’ ax de Lord ter turn yer roun’.’’ 


‘At the height of a camp-meeting sermon their song 
leader will sing out: 


“¢ Oh, I feel de Spirit a-movin’.’’ 


and the audience will respond: 


f *¢ Don’t get weary, 

‘ Dar’s a great camp-meetin’ in de Promus Lan’.’’ 

‘ 

; They believed in repentance for sin and forgiveness in 

. response to confession. Could a more pathetic expression 
be given of the loneliness of a soul that feels cut off 
by sin from God than in the song, ‘‘ I couldn’t hear 


nobody pray ’’? 
Longing to grow in grace in seeing the inch worm 


| 


304 The Upward Path 


4 
measuring its way along slowly on the ground, some poet- 
moralist saw it as a symbol of Christian growth: 


‘* *Twas inch by inch I sought the Lord, . 
Jesus will come by and by, . 
An’ inch by inch he blessed my soul, 
Jesus will come by and by. 


CHoRUS: 


Keep a inchin’ along, keep a inchin’ along, 
Jesus will come by and by, 

Keep a inchin’ along like the poor inch worm, 
Jesus will come by and by.’’ 


They believed in and sang of the practical Christian 
virtues: 


** Go read the fifth of Matthew, 
An’ read the chapter through; 
It is a guide for Christians, 
An’ it tells ’em what ter do.’’ 


Again: 


‘* You say you’re aimin’ fer de skies; 
Why don’t you stop yer tellin’ lies? 
You say de Lord has set you free; 
Why don’t you let yer neighbor be??? 


Again: 


‘* Watch that sun, how steady she come, 
Don’t let her ketch ye wid yer work undone.’? 


They wanted and prayed to be holy, and knew it must 
be through love: 


‘“ Oh, make a-me holy, holy, I do love, I do love; 
Make a-me holy, holy, I do love, I do love de Lord.’* 


Appendixes 305 


They believed in heaven, and with exulting joy in the 


blessed life that would be their portion, they expressed 


their determined resolve to get there: 


‘< Let my steps be many er few, 
By an’ by, by an’ by; 

I mean ter keep heaven in view, 
By an’ by, by an’ by. 


‘¢ Oh, when the storms of life are over, 
We shall anchor in the harbor, 

We will praise our God forever, 
By an’ by, by an’ by.’’ 


They triumphed over ‘‘ Jordan’s stream, so chilly an’ 
cole,’’ when they sang: 
‘¢ T looked over Jordan, an’ what did I see, 
Comin’ fer ter carry me home? 
A band of angels, comin’ after me, 
Comin’ fer ter carry me home. 


CHORUS: 


Swing low, sweet chariot, 
Comin’ fer ter carry me home.’’ 


Within the ‘‘ pearly gates ’’ of the heavenly city they 


_ will ‘‘ lay down my heavy load,’’ and walk ‘‘ de golden 


Sa a be 


streets,’’ ‘‘ all robed in white,’’ meeting with sainted 
fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers, whom the ‘‘ pale 
horse an’ rider have taken away,’’ and with whom they 
will dwell in ‘‘ de manshuns in de skies.’’ 

They felt a keen sense of pleasure in the defeat their 
redemption brings to Satan, whom they described as a 
‘¢ liar and a conjurer too ’’: 


‘¢ Ol’ Satan’s mad an’ I am glad; 
That’s what Satan’s a-grumblin’ about; 


306 The Upward Path 


He missed that soul he thought he had, 
That’s what Satan’s a-grumblin’ about.’’ 


They accepted the great commission to deliver the 
gospel message to others: 
‘T’ll take my gospel trumpet, 
An’ I’ll begin to blow, 
An’ if my Savior helps me 
I’ll blow wherever I go.’’ 


They exhorted others: 


““ Go an’ tell everybody, 
Yes, Jesus is risen from the dead.’’ 


The sinner is plead with in their revival meetings: 


‘* Sinner, please don’t let this harvest pass, 
An’ die an’ lose your soul at las’.’? 


He is encouraged to come to Jesus: 


““ Come on, mourner, make a bound, 
De Lord will meet you on half-way ground.’’ 


He is warned of the terrible judgment day lest he 
should be among those that ery out: 
‘* Rocks an’ mountains, please fall on me.’’ 


They believed in the angels, especially ‘* Gabriel and 
his trumpet,’’ and the ‘‘ angel band ’”’ that carried them 
to heaven on wings ‘‘ tipped with gold.?? Their songs 
also are filled with references to Bible incidents and 
characters that testify to their acquaintance with the 
Word of God and also to their ability to draw practical 
lessons from it. Noah and the ark prefigure salvation 
and safety in the Church. Moses, chosen by God to lead 
his people out of bondage, is an especial favorite, and 
they claimed the deliverence of the Israelites as a 
promise of their own liberation: 


Appendixes 307 


‘¢ Our bondage ’ll have an end by an’ by. 
Jehovah rules de tide an’ de water he’ll divide, 
Oh, de way he’ll open wide, 

By an’ by, by an’ by.’’ 


‘¢ Little David,’’ who played on his harp and ‘‘ killed 
Goliath,’’ is emblematic of the Christian’s conquest over 
sin; as is also ‘‘ Joshua the son of Nun,’’ who ‘‘ never 
would quit till the work was done.’’ Jonah is used as a 
warning to those who refuse to preach when called. 
Daniel, cast in the lions’ den on account of his praying 
habit and delivered by the Lord, was a familiar subject 
in their preaching, and of him they sang: 


‘<Dan’l wuz a prayin’ man; 

He pray three times er day; 
De Lord he hist de winder 

Fer to hear po’ Dan’! pray.’’ 


They sympathized with ‘‘ weepin’ Mary’’ and 
©¢ doubtin’? Thomas,’’ and alluded to all the apostles by 
name. John and his apocalyptic visions were of the 
deepest interest to them and they exhort him: 


‘¢ Tell all the world, John, 
‘TI know de odder world’s not like this’.’’ 


It is needless to say that with the educated classes 
these melodies are regarded as relics of the past, and 
that with perhaps a few exeeptions they have no place 
in their religious services of to-day. They use instead 
the same hymns and gospel songs that are used by white 
congregations, some of the latter having not as much 
music or religion as those they have discarded. 


308 The Upward Path 


APPENDIX C 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 


No attempt has been made to provide a complete 
bibliography on the Negro. So many books, pamphlets, 
and articles have been written that only the most recent 
relating to the contents of the book are included. The 
alphabetical order has been adopted so as to avoid dis- 
crimination of any kind, as the view-point of South- 
erner, Northerner, and Negro is presented in the list. 


The Negro in Africa 


Dowd: The Negro Races. 1907. The Macmillan Co., 
New York. $2.50, net. 


Nassau: Fetichism in West Africa. 1904. Charles 
Seribner’s Sons, New York. $2.50, net. 


Naylor: Daybreak in the Dark Continent. 1908. Young 
People’s Missionary Movement, New York. 50 
cents, net. 

Parsons: Christus Liberator. 1905. The Macmillan Co., 
New York. 50 cents, net. 


Historical and General 


Dyer: Democracy in the South Before the Civil War. 
1905. Smith & Lamar, Nashville. $1.00. 


Harrison and Barnes: The Gospel Among the Slaves. 
1893. Smith & Lamar, Nashville. $1.25. 


Murphy: Problems of the Present South. 1909. Long- 
mans, Green & Co., New York. $1.50, net. 


Montgomery: Vital American Problems. 1908. G. P. 
Putnam’s Sons, New York. $1.50, net. 


Appendixes 309 


Stone: Studies in the American Race Problem. 1908. 
Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. $2.00. 


Williams: History of the Negro Race in America, 1619- 
1880. 1882. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York. 
$4.00. 


The Negro in the United States 


Baker: Following the Color Line. 1908. Doubleday, 
Page & Co., New York. $2.00, net. 


Cable: Negro Question. 1890. Charles Scribner’s 
Sons, New York. 75 cents. 


Du Bois: Souls of the Black Folk. 1907. A.C. MeClurg 
& Co., Chicago. $1.20. 


Merriam: The Negro and the Nation. 1906. Henry 
Holt & Co., New York. $1.75, net. 


Miller: Race Adjustment. 1908. Neale Publishing Co., 
Washington. $2.00, net. 


Morgan: The Negro in America, and the Ideal Amer- 
ican Republic. 1898. American Baptist Publi- 
cation Society, Philadelphia. $1.00. 


Page: The Negro: The Southerner’s Problem. 1904. 
Charles Seribner’s Sons, New York. $1.25, net. 


Shannon: Racial Integrity. 1907. Smith & Lamar, 
Nashville. $1.25. 


Sinclair: The Aftermath of Slavery. 1905. Small, 
Maynard & Co., Boston. $1.50. 


Smith: The Color Line. 1905. Doubleday, Page & Co., 
New York. $1.50, net. 


Thomas: The American Negro. 1901. The Macmillan 
Co., New York. $2.00, net. 


310 The Upward Path 


Washington: The Future of the American Negro. 1907. 
Small, Maynard & Co., Boston. $1.50. 


Washington: Character Building. 1902. Doubleday, 
Page & Co., New York. $1.50, net. 


Washington: Up from Slavery. 1900. Doubleday, Page 
& Co., New York. $1.50, net. 


Washington: Frederick Douglass. 1906. George W. 
Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia. $1.25, net. 


Whipple: Negro Neighbors. 1907. Woman’s American 
Baptist Home Missionary Society, Boston. 50 
cents, net. 


Washington: The Negro in Business. 1907. Hertel, 
Jenkins & Co., Boston. $1.50. 


Washington and Du Bois: The Negro in the South. 
1907. George W. Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia. 
$1.00. 


Negro Songs and Stories 


Avary: Dixie After the War. 1906. Doubleday, Page 
& Co., New York. $2.75, net. 


Chesnutt: The Wife of His Youth. 1899. Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co., New York. $1.50. 


Dunbar: Poems of Cabin and Field. 1899. Dodd, Mead 
& Co., New York. $1.50, net. 


Dunbar: Lyrics of Lowly Life. 1908. Dodd, Mead & 
Co., New York. $1.00, net. 


Gordon and Page: Befo’ de War. Echoes of Negro 
Dialect. 1888. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New 
York. $1.00. 


Appendixes 311 


Harris: The Tar-Baby, and Other Rhymes of Uncle 
Remus. 1904. D. Appleton & Co., New York. 
$2.00, net. 


Harris: Told by Uncle Remus; New Stories of the Old 
Plantation. 1905. Doubleday, Page & Co., New 
York. $2.00. 


Harris: Uncle Remus, His Songs and Sayings. 1902. D. 
Appleton & Co., New York. $2.00. 


Hobson: In Old Alabama; being the Chronicles of Miss 
Mouse, the Little Black Merchant. 1903. Double- 
day, Page & Co., New York. $1.50. 


Page: In Ole Virginia. 1887. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 
New York. $1.25. 


Price: The Negro, Past, Present and Future. 1907. 
Neale Publishing Co., Washington. $1.50. 


Pyrnelle: Diddie, Dumps and Tot. 1882. Harper & 
Brothers, New York. 60 cents. 

Stanton: Songs from Dixie Land. 1900. Bobbs-Mer- 
Till Co., Indianapolis. $1.25. 


Weeden: Bandanna Ballads, including ‘‘ Shadows on the’ 
Wall,’’ verses and pictures. Introduction by 
Joel Chandler Harris. 1899. Doubleday, Page 
& Co., New York. $1.00, net. 


Weeden: Songs of the Old South. 1900. Doubleday, 
Page & Co., New York. $1.50, net. 


Work: Jubilee Songs. Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn. 


Magazine Articles 


Baker: ‘‘ The Negro in Southern City Life.’?? Ameri- 
can Magazine, March, 1907. 


312 The Upward Path 


Baker: ‘‘ Negro Conditions in the Black Belt.’’ Ameri- — 


can Magazine, July, 1907; August, 1907. 


Baker: ‘‘ Negro Race Riot, Atlanta, 1906.’’ American 
Magazine, April, 1907; May, 1907. : 


Baker: ‘‘ What to do About the American Negro.’’ 
American Magazine, September, 1908. 


Baker: ‘‘ The Conflict of the Negro in Dealing with the 
Race Problem.’’ American Magazine, May, 1908. 


Baker: ‘‘ Negroes in the North.’’ American Magazine, 
February, 1908. 


Baker: ‘‘ Opportunities of the Negro.’? American 
Magazine, June, 1908. 


Baker: ‘‘ Negroes in Politics.’? American Magazine, 
June, 1908. 


Baker: ‘‘ Power of the Negro in the South.’’ Ameri- 
can Magazine, July, 1908. 


Bonham: ‘‘ Emigration to Settle the Negro Question.’ 
Education, April, 1908. 


Bousal: ‘‘ The Negro Soldier in War and Peace.’’ 
North American Review, June 7, 1907. 


Bratton: ‘‘ The Christian South and the Education of 
the Negro.’’ Sewanee Review, July, 1908. 


Bumstead: ‘‘ The Ballot as a Whip.’’ Independent, 
June 11, 1908. 


Conant: ‘‘ Future of the Negro.’’ Arena, July, 1908. 


Cooley: ‘‘ Negroes of the Sea Islands. ’’ Outlook, Octo- 
ber 24, 1908, 


Fleming: ‘‘ Jefferson Davis and the Negroes.’’ Sewa- 
nee Magazine, October, 1908. 


Appendixes 313 


Galloway: ‘‘ The Negro as a Business Man.’’ World’s 
Work, June, 1908. 


Garner: ‘‘ Recent Agitation of the Negro in the South.’ 
South Atlantic Quarterly, June, 1908, 


Gilman: ‘‘ Negroes: A Suggestion on the Problem.’’ 
American Journal of Sociology, July, 1908. 


Gladden: ‘‘ The Negro Crisis.’’ American Magazine, 
January, 1907. 


Hart: ‘‘ Outcome of the Southern Race Question.’’ 
North American Review, July, 1908. 


Ingersoll: ‘‘ Negro Plot in New York in 1741.’’ Green 
Bag, February, 1908. 


Jelks: ‘‘ The Acuteness of the Negro Problem; A Sug- 
gested Remedy.’’? North American Review, Feb- 
ruary 15, 1907. 


Johnston: ‘‘ Negroes: How to Make Them Work.’’ 
Nineteenth Century, January, 1908. 


Jones: ‘‘ A Race in the Making.’’? Westminster Ee- 
view, April, 1907. 


Livingstone: ‘‘ West Indian and United States Negro; 
A Contrast.’? North American Review, July 19, 
1907. 


Minor: ‘‘ Separate Cars for Negroes.’’? Nation, August 
1, 1907. 


Moore: ‘‘ Negroes in the Army of the Revolution.’’ 
Magazine of History, 1908. 


Moton: ‘‘ Negroes’ Uphill Climb.’’ World’s Work, 
April, May, August, 1907. 


Northern: ‘‘ The Negro Situation: One Way Out.’ 
World To-Day, September, 1907. 


314 The Upward Path 


Page: ‘‘ The Negro Question.’’ McClure’s Magazine, 
March, 1907. 


Park: ‘‘ Agricultural Extension Among the Negroes.’’ 
World To-Day, August, 1908. 


Perey: ‘‘ A Southern View of Education of the Negro.’’ 
Outlook, August 3, 1907. 


Smith: ‘‘ An Uplifting Negro Codperative Society,’’- 
World’s Work, July, 1908. 


Stone: ‘‘ Race Friction.’? American Journal of Soci- 
ology, March, 1908. 


Summers: ‘‘ Negro Town in Illinois.’’? Independent, 
August 27, 1908. 


‘* The Negro and Justice.’? Independent, October 17, 
1907. 


Ward: ‘‘ Negro Exhibition at Jamestown, 1907.’’ JIn- 
dependent, November 14, 1907. 


Washington: ‘‘ American Negro of To-day.’’ Putnam’s 
Magazine, October, 1907. 


Washington: ‘‘ A Negro College Town.’? World’s 
Work, September, 1907. 


Washington: ‘‘ A Town Owned by Negroes.’’ World’s 
Work, July, 1907. 


Washington: ‘‘ Negro Homes.’? Century Magazine, 
May, 1908. 


Washington: ‘‘ Education of the Man Behind the 
Plow.’’ Independent, April 23, 1908. 


Wells: ‘‘ Negro Race Prejudice.’’ Independent, Feb- 
tuary 14, 1907. 


“g UNoYING ‘SaIDIS panuy ey) U2 sa0.LDANT 1 


x 
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APPENDIX E! 


tan) Lal 
Y yp 


iN fe ra), 


de. 


ES Leos than | porcont 


\ 
PROPORTION OF NEGRO TO TOTAL POPULATION 
ofthe 


Compiled by 


HENRY GANNETT, GEOGRAPHER. y 


UNITED STATES 
et tho Twelfth Consus 
1900 


cent and over 
Indicates an aggregate 
Population of ress a 2 Inbabitente Noe square mle, 


had 


GB 60 pe 


‘The absence of 


: APPENDIX F 


Negro population, and per cent. Negro in total population, 1900. 


Negro Per cent. 
ATE OR TERRITORY IN ORDER OF DECREAS-| ponula- Negro 
ING PER CENT. NEGRO IN TOTAL i ie in total 


POPULATION. : popula- 
1900. | tion : 1900. 


lississippi PMR ao wie, as! a/ape sre taves cjialare 907,630 58.5 
fouth Carolina.........-....eec eee eeees 782,321 58.4 
OUEST ce ye 4 Ree iui 650,804 47.1 
SEO EPIBM aU lett setate a no)Wi'wielele elle)» via/ucelalle w!s 1,034,813 46.7 
peta nach & «>» vin = Sh clase 4 «iaadmeld 827,307 45.2 
Mees T MN 8 I Sickel Sia are yea oft eta nies 230,730 43.7 
DRROA IAN ein cs sine os cele eisi« F eleidiseuaretehatelie(s 660,722 35.6 
North Carolina..............-- SO eciceid 624,469 33.0 
District of Columbia...........-.-.-----+: 86,702 ane 
BREATHS ec isle ns ieicia civ oleleis slam alain sie geceinss 366,856 28.0 
Tennessee........- i jaial chet oterare pune © nus Ciovexenets 480,243 23.8 
PESO eerie, mea oa atolleelaehurm tolie( ays «i's oa oieiela 620,722 20.4 
VIB. Selah ciate cs pioje/clwmersleisisisye «= le cies 235,064 19.8 
MRSS OTOH ils il vitiyiciiese cfs) ele micveiwieis liao aim aie « 30,697 16.6 
BPETETE CIC Vee tele ie cietetaiate ocshele minjiarelaie:evesa's 284,706 13.3 
Indian Territory oO EIEN Beco Lee eae 36, 9.4 
RSSOUUL. ote eee wel Bas fe ieee hey ah Gye Sieatas 161,234 5.2 
Bc] AOMMA: eh auisly icis «(= Lore Geet BEaee 18,831 4.7 
West Virginia......,.-..eeeeeee see eeeees 43,499 4.5 
New Jersey..... RO Neti Joleraletatfevare "=, afsliess!ie/0)'s 69,844 3.7 
Berissas eH Mee ie lcje sae le aletsinine= = elem ores 52,003 3h 
ennsylvania,......--+e-se ee eeereee BEG 156,845 2.5 
Indiana Reunites ake « Sates perenne ai olerel secs ele 57,505 2.3 
Taha E.. eee SRR Bee enna Bratt 96,901 QS 
Rhode Tells. ae RR OO Ree aepingD 9,092 oat 
BHinGIsscwss ewes BSE eA SS eine Eimegeinre 85,078 1.8 
Connecticut..........-+-eeee ere errr 15,226 Wed 
Colorado. . 8,570 1.6 
Arizona. 1,848 1.5 
New Yor 99,232 1.4 
ea CO Pe a 2 Lakers EN ae BSH GOL 31,974 staat 
YOMING.....-..-++++e- Di chatatetetere alexa (at ate | 940 1.0 
New Mexico........--+:eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 1,610 0.8 
exorsia: SN PRR ge oN torsos eater eiete st 11,045 0.7 
SLSR ARS Co Ue ae 15,816 0.7 

12,693 0.6 

1,523 0.6 

6,269 0.6 

2,514 0.5 

4,959 0.3 

SRD IRRS AP AC. AES Se Seo 134 0.3 

1,105 0.3 

293 0.2 

1,319 0.2 

662 0.2 

672 0.2 

826 0.2 

286 0.1 

465 0.1 

2,542 0.1 


APPENDIX G 


Number and per cent. distribution of Ne ulation of conti 
see United States, by State or fatima anne Anan 


an cent. of 

egro pop- 

ulation of 

Negro __|continental 

STATE OR TERRITORY IN ORDER} popula- ited 

OF DECRDASING NUMBER tion: | States liy- 
OF NEGROES 900. i 


Georgia. 3. eters eat oe ee 1,034,813 11.7 11 
Mississippi... Cop ccn, cee eee 907,630 10.3 22.0 
Alabama, )) 330806 | OS praia 827,307 9.4 31.4 
South Carolina............... 782,321 8.9 40.3 
Virginia 30 eee ss eee 660,722 7.5 47.8 
Louisiana), 3 eee. ae : 7.4 55.27 
North Carolina......)........ 624,469 7.1 62.3 
Texas. - Geen eee 620,722 7.0 69.3 
‘Terinessees .) 1.02/20 oan 480,243 5.4 74.7 
Arkansas: jie Sa See 366,856 4.2 73.94 
Kentuelsy ie ee ; 3.2 82.1 
Maryland)... 80g se tee 235,064 2.7 84.8 | 
Florida. . 230,730 2.6 87.4 
Missouri. . 161,234 1.8 89.2 
Pennsylvania. 156,845 1.8 91.0 
New York.... ; 99,232 cD | 92.1 
ORiae a  e ane 3 96,901 an 93.2 
District of Columbia. . f 86,702 1.0 94.2 
Tinos: 4: OP Sere cae j 85,078 1.0 95.2 
New. Jerseys ioe ork ae 69,844 0.8 96.0 — 
Endianadd ap eae 2) sens ga 57,505 0.6 96.6 
URSA SCP targ Bona clo ape kaso 82; 0.6 97.2 
Vest /Wingpania eine olen aysiu nim 43,499 0.5 97.79 
Indian Territory............:. 36,853 0.4 98.1 
7 /PSsachusebhas oso eth ae 31,974 0.4 98.5 
Dp cmware.Wiiscieeite osteo ee 30,697 0.3 98.8 - 
CMahoma ee Ra) ep ey 18,831 0.2 99.0 
Michigan), 40 Weare Ue ae 15,816 0.2 99.2 5 
Connecticut.................. 15,226 0.2 99.4 
Towa) 2:05 jo © Se re ina 12,693 0.1 99.5 — 
California 2). 5 08 Seti Seen eae 11,045 0.1 99.6 
hade Island!) (eas. Ga ea a 9,092 0.1 99.7 
Colorado. (ERA ea 8,570 0.1 99.8 © 
Nebraska. 3's OU 0 0a kaa 6,269 0.1 99.9 
Minnesota: 2:27 0): Soa 4,959 0.1 100.0 
Wisconsin.) / 4) ee ee 100.0 
Washingtons: 0 ty oy Bee 100.0 — 
Arizona =.) Senge eee ae 100.0 — 
ew Mexico. Son. 2 s <a eee 100.0 — 
Montana): {Ce iinet 7 eg 100.0 
Maine, 4/.3i:5 Seton es eee 100.0 
Oregons .2)) OHS Se On 100.0 — 
Wroniing 0) Sean (2 100.0 
Vermont.) anne eee 826 (2) 100.0 
TUR eh ane en ieee, Ue en 672 (2) 100.0 
New Hampshire.............. 662 2) 100.0 
South Dakota. . a 465 2) 100.0 
Idaho....... 293 2) 100.0 
North Dakota 286 3} 100.0 
CVAOE: askin scan eee eens 134 2) 100.0 


1 Negroes in the United States, Bulletin 8. 
2 Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent. 


otal population, Negro p 
distributi 


on, i yetoneh ope Lo divisions, 


PHYSIOGRAPHIC 
DIVISION. 


Continental United 
States....... 


lew England hills. ...- 
toast lowlands......--. 
joastal plain (east of 
Mississippi river) .... 
%edmont region....... 
ppa palachian valley. . 
Beeneny a 2 eee 
eregion.....-.-.-- 
“ae timbered region 
fississippi alluvial re- 


Jzark hills.........--. 
yoastal plain (west es 
ppi river). . 
reat plains.........-- 
2ocky Mountain?...... 
Jolumbian mesas.....- 
reat basin........--- 
jateau region.......-- 
Pacific valley Reed Bee x 
Joast ranges..........- 


Appendixes 


APPENDIX H 
opulation, per cent. Negro, and per cent. 


319 


1900.* 


1900 


Total pop- | Negro pop- 


ulation. 


10,260,153 
1,865,952 


6,427,635 
6,809,103 


9,571,215 
8,129,760 


1,227,094 
13,300,970 
880 


” , 


1,974,677 


ulation. 


| 75,994,575 | 8,833,994 


137,553 
795,155 


2,972,269 
1,818,732 


gro pop- 
cent. |ylation Tok 


Negro continen- 


11.6 

1.4 1.6 
42.6 9.0 
46.3 33.6 
26.7 20.6 
5.3 2.7 
3.1 2.1 
0.8 0.8 
ent 7.1 
62.9 8.7 
3.5 5.3 
4.8 0.7 
33.2 7.4 
1.3 0.2 
0.7 

0.4 (2) 
0.2 (?) 
1.2 () 
0.6 af 
0.7 0.1 


1 Negroes in the United States, Bulletin 8. 


_ 2 Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent. 


The Upward Path 


320 


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321 


Appendixes 


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a a Pree 


322 The Upward Path 


APPENDIX J ; 
Per cent. ware in et for the 55 counties having at lea 
75 per cent ‘0 in total population, 1900.1 ; 
Per 
Per cent. centl 


egro 


N 
COUNTY IN ORDER OF in total COUNTY IN ORDER OF _ Negro 


DECREASING PER anus DECREASING PER in tots 
CENT. NEGRO. aon CENT. NEGRO. popu- 
' lation: 
1900. 

1900. 
Issaquena, Miss........ 94.0 |/Leon, Fla... 80. 
Tensasibia; ihe ne 93.5 ||Wileox, Ala.. 80. 
Madison, La........... 92.7 ||Madison, Miss. . 79. 
East Carroll, La........ 91.6 Wilkinson, Miss. 79. 
Beaufort, S. ©..2......5 90.5 ||Berkeley, iS Gi 78. 
Tunica, Mise! eso. a 90.5 ams, Miss 78. 
Washington, Miss. ...... 89.7  ||Phillips, Ark..... 78. 
Coahoma, Miss......... 88.2) ||Pernyy(Alavanan. see 78. 
Leflore, Miss........... 88.2 ossier, La.........6. 78.) 

Bolivar, Miss........... 88.1 ||Russell, Ala........... 78 
Sharkey, Miss.......... 88.1 Claiborne, Miss........ 78. 
Concordia, La.......... 87.4 ||Holmes, Miss......... Ws 
Chicot, (Arion). Jone aa. 87.1 ||Jefferson, Fla......... 77. 
Lowndes, Ala.......... 86.6 ATE 2 BL ean 77. 
Greene Ala! ): in 3) 86.3 |/MeIntosh, Ga......._. Tis 
West Feliciana, La..... 86.2 ||West Baton Rouge, La. 77. 
Lees Gane) te toa 85.4 || Yazoo, Miss........... Ta 
Noxubee, Misa ce ey ae 84.8 Marengo, Ala......... 76.4 
Crittenden, Ark........ 84.6 uitman, Miss........ 76.5 
Dallaa BAN) 00! eae ae 83.0 ||Georgetown, S. C...... 76.( 
Sumter, Ala.) 22222227! 82.7 orehouse ROD Hs 76.: 
Dougherty, Ga......... 82.1 ||Warwick, Va.......... 76.8 
Bullock, Ala........... 81.7 ||Fairfield, S.C. .5....): 76 .( 
Bunkey/(Gal cau) ee 81.7 ||Lowndes, Miss........ 75.4 
Desha,cAnks san sees 81.7 ||Hinds, Miss........... 75.3 
Hale, Ala. . 81.7 . ||Houston, Ga.s. 2.00502 ; 75.1 
Macon; Alaee es. 45 81.6 |!Sunflower, Miss....... 75.0 

Jefferson, Miss......... 81.1 


1 Negroes in the United States, Bulletin 8. 


Per cent. illiterate in Negro population at least 10 years of age: 
1900 and 1890.1 


PER CENT. ILLITERATE 


j APPENDIX K 
ee 
| 


Decrease 
STATE OR TERRITORY HAVING ENR IA ar in per 
At LEAS 500 NEGROES 10 LEAST 10 YEARS cent. illit- 
YEARS OF AGE AND OF AGE. erate: 
OVER In 1900. fad SN ON pn Vt, 1890 to 
1900 1890 1900. 
Louisiana 61.1 rex! 11.0 
Alabama... 57.4 69.1 1 7 
South, Caro a 52.8 64.1 11.3 
Georgia....... ae ‘a pas % rahe 
ississippi. ; ) ! 
North Carolina 47.6 60.1 1285 
¢ fe 44.6 57.2 12.6 
43.0 53.6 10.6 
ADU Sho teat eta lect flee) tlle ace e 
41.6 54.2 12.6 
40.1 55.9 15.8 
38.4 50.5 TEL 
38.2 52.5 14.3 
a Bi] Be] us 
aryland..... R ah a 
est Virginia. 32.3 44.5 12.2 
Bourn Peiesane se a 41.7 2S i" 
HOMIE et wine 26. 39.0 4 
istrict of Columbia 24.3 35.0 10.7 
MGIANS.........- 22.6 32.3 9.7 
Kansas.......-- 22.3 32.8 10.5 
ew Mexico...... 19.1 45.8 26.7 
OW... .-5----- 22> 18.5 26.1 7.6 
imolsse eens s ore 18.1 26.8 8.7 
LTC go eo ae 17.8 25.4 7.6 
ew Jersey.....-..-- Wore 28.1 ts 
NOMI erotic aiaiss as <iaiers «= 17.2 17.8 QO. 
ennsylvalia........---++s05 psy! 23 .2 8.1 
RMON teres fe acho wales = © 0 Sha Laie 20.4 5.8 
lO REI a 14.2 15.9 iLavs 
Mihode Island...........---.+ 14.1 18.1 4.0 
COLAO TADS Se eeR) Se a 13.4 26.5 13.1 
OLOTAG OMA sale es Wielehci nts ase)si a) ol jorge 17.6 ae 
EAOR IR eRe Sine ale eek) Waals 2). 19.2 3 
Wew Hampshire............- 11.9 22NS 10.6 
Be et eka |) ba 
Mionnectieut,.. 6s. es ees ee ees 11.5 nes: 3.8 
Montana..........--2-+++- 11.4 11.0 20.4 
BUTSCOUSING sa caine Melee slater. are 11.4 20.0 8.6 
FR pene er: TAL errand SER Ooh a oe at ae 
Sp VOT rips SESe ati brtel Sie tas lalt et: ? aul A 
Massachusetts..........-..-- ee 14.3 ae 
BREOM Sele aie ctinlavia oe, a je! bf 210/510. é Lr ae | 4 
POTIGSOEME ele eile tcyeiate ss «alate 7.9 L291 4.2 
Tn ee Ae ern sna lala ahah 6.3 26.6 20.3 


1 Negroes in the United States, Bulletin 8. 
2 Increase. 


APPENDIX L 


Negro population at least 10 years of age engaged in specific 
ee opine: ae it 


oT 


= 

NEGRO POPULATION AT LEAST 10 

YEARS OF AGE ENGAGED IN GAIN= 

FUL OCCUPATIONS, i 

OTS PTT pe 

OCCUPATION. Increase: | | 
1890 to 19 


1900 1890 : 
Num- | Per 
ber. | cent, 


—— 


ma 7 Sd 
Continental United States: 
All occupations..... 3,992,337 | 3,073,164 || 919,173 29 || 
Occupations giving employ- 
ment to at least 10,000 | 
negroes in 1900.......... 3,807,008 22,917,169 2869,095) 229.4 
Agricultural laborers.. . 1,344,125 | 1,106,728 237,397; 21. 
armers, planters, and 
Overseers....... Ren it hsi(s/2 2 590,666 || 167,156 28. 
Laborers (not specified) 545,935 349,002 || 196,933 56.) 
Servants and waiters. . 465,734 401,215 64,519} 16. 


dressesic it) len 220,104 153,684 66,420) 43 a 
Draymen, hackmen, 

teamsters, ete....... 67,585 43,963 23,622; 53 y 
Steam railroad em- 

plovecs 400, eae 55,327| 47,548 || 7,779] 16.4 


Miners and quarrymen.| 36,561} 19,007 || 17°554 92.4 


employees.......... 33,266 17,276 || 15,990 92.4 
Porters and helpers (in 

Stores, jete!), (23) ) 28,977 11,694 17,283 147.5 
Teachers and professors 

in colleges, ete...... 21,267 15,100 6,167} 40. 
Carpenters and joiners. 21,113 22,581 31,468} 36. 


laborers) io)0/) 99 Be 20,744 CA) TR a 
Barbersand hairdressers 19,942 17,480 2,462) 14, 
Nurses and midwives. . 19,431 5,213 14,218} 272. 
Clergymen............ 15,528 12,159 3,369) 27. 
Tobacco and cigar fac- | 

-tory operatives...... 15,349 15,004 345) og 
Hostlers, 8.400 Ya, 14,496 10,500 3,996| 38. ; 
Masons (brick and stone) 14,386 9,760 4,626} 47. 
Dressmakers.......... 12,569 7,586 4,983} 65.7 
Iron and steel workers, 12,327 6,579 5,748} 87.4 
Seamstresses........., 11,537 11,846 3309} 32.6 
Janitors and sextons... 11,536 5,945 5,591} 94.0 
Housekeepers and stew- 

ceva (splay Wan acetates 10,596 9,248 1,348 14.6 
Fishermen and oyster- ‘ 

TED) ie ee ae 10,427 10,071 356] 3.5 
Engineers and firemen ki 

(not locomotive)... . 10,224 6,326 3,898) 61.6 
Blacksmiths. ......... 10,100 10,988 3888] 38.] 

Other occupations......... 185,329 | 5155,995 || 550,078] 532. 1 
} SG RI VIR 
@ Negroes tn the United States, Bulletin 8. 


Excludes turpentine farmers and laborers. i 5 Decrease. 
4 Turpentine farmers and laborers were included in ‘ ‘other agricul- 
tural pursuits” in 1890, 5 Includes turpentine farmers and laborers, 


i 
ai 


Aidit 
id 


Aa 
Rhea! sp 
eet 


. 


: INDEX 


Pbolition disapproval of, 69, 
234; first ery for, from 
Great Britain, 68 

\bolitionists, activities of, 


69 

\frica, condition of the Ne- 
gro in, xiii, 2, 6-28; con- 
trol of and "gold i in, sought 
by European people, 6; 
part from which slaves 
chiefly came, 8, 9; peopled 
largely by two Negro types, 

5; rediscovery by Portu- 

guese, 6; superstitions 
brought from, by the Ne- 
oe, 26, 27, 54-56, 180- 
182 

\frican, children, 16, 17; fet- 
ichism or paganism, see 
Fetichism; mothers and 
fathers, 16, 17. See also 
Negro, in Africa 

\frican Methodist Episcopal 
Zion Church, 243 

\llen, Bishop Richard, re- 
ferred to, 242 

\mendment, Fifteenth, 80, 
86; Thirteenth, 84 

American Federation of La- 
bor, 114 

(\ndrews, Bishop, 237 

Army of Occupation, 86 

Asset of the nation, the Negro 
a valuable, xvili 

Atlanta, churches of, 252 

Atlanta University, 247; 
Publications, quoted, 134, 
135, 137, 244, 257, 259 

Atlantic Monthly, quoted, 80 


Bangs, AL euaugh cigted, 242 

Banks, Negro, 13 

Bantus, the, 7, 211; Negroes 
of LS pian States largely 
from, 8 

Baptist Church, 244; in At- 
lanta, 252; predominance 
in Black Belt, 248; work 
among Negroes, 225, 226 

Fea Harlan P., quoted, 
10 


Beaty, Rev. L. F., quoted on 
plantation missions, 229- 
232 


cooperative, 


study of, 279, 
88 


Benevolence, 
135, 136 

Bible, 277; 
280, 281, 2 

Birth-rate, Negro, 174 

“Black Art, ” 23-26, 55, 56 

Black Belt, ’ churches i in, 248, 
249; need of forward cam- 
paign in, 259 

“Black Harry, 279 

Bove of contention, the Negro 


, XVili 
Ben, Rev. William Wash- 
ington, referred to, 132 

Bushmen, the, 7, 210 
Business man, the Negro as a, 
136-138 


Campaign, a forward gospel, 
needed, 25 

Capers, Bishop, 229, 231, 235, 
237 


“Carpet-bagger,’’ 80, 86, 94 
Catholics, Roman, 62, 191, 
242, 246 


328 


Caucasian, civilization, 5; 
Negro, three classes of, 
217) 212; raee; 6, 7,510 
98, 210 

Census of the United States, 
Twelfth, map from, show- 
ing Negro distribution, 
316; tables from, relati 
to Negro, 110, 166, 317-324 

Chamberlain, Governor, 
quoted, 85 

Chicago, 257 

Child-labor, 123 

Christ, see Jesus Chirst 

Christian Church, the (Dis- 
ciples of Christ), 242, 245 

Christianity, acceptance of, 
25; test of, by Negro prob- 
lem, xv; thwarted among 
Negroes, 91 
urch, benevolent societies 
of, 130; destroyed by war, 
90; efforts to win the 
slaves to Christ, 60-62; 
in large cities, 256-258; 
organizations, 240-247; so- 
cial center, 251; united ef- 
fort to Christianize present 
Negro population, 270- 
275; work of, 239, 240 

Civil War, cause of, 71; end 
of, 71; Negro population 
before, 43; political antag- 
onism of, 70 

Clubs, benefit of, 285 

Colleges, need of, 197; work 
of, 205; would gain by 
concentration, 206, 207 

Colored Methodist Episcopal 
Church, 243, 244 

Color line, the, 293, 294 

Conference, General, action 

in 1800 against slavery, 232 
Conerepnone Church, 242, 
2 


4, 
Cooking schools, 285 


Index 4 
, 


Coéperation, economic, 130 
Cotton-gin, invention of, | 


cuted for teaching colon 
girls, 234, 235 7 
Crime, Negro, 166-173; cha 
acter of, 166, 168; list 
causes, 166-172; misca 
riage of justice, 172, 173 
Culture, soul and mental, 21 


Cumberland __ Presbyteris 
Church, 245 

stir Rev. Samuel, minist 
of, 2 

Deaconesses, colored, 28 
286, 287 


Death, 18; result of wite 
craft, 23 

Death-rate, 175; causes fo 
176-179 

Dowd, Jerome, quoted, 7, 

Drummond, quoted, 108 

Drunkenness prevente 
among slaves, 49 
uBois, Dr. W. E. B 
quoted, 128, 196; referre 
to, 115, 206 

Dunbar, Paul Lawrene 
quoted, 301 

Dyer, Prof. G. W., quote 
41, 42 


? 


Early, Bishop, 237 
Economic problem of Negrc 
115 


Edwards, Harry Stillwel 
quoted, 106, 144 

Education, advantages fur 
nished by Church an 
State, 188; Christian, 18§ 
freedmen’s need of, 187 
gains of, 188, 189; Repor 
of the United States Com 
missioner of, 195; th 
South’s interest in, 118, 11 


Index 


cs, order of, 135 
1ancipation, 7; effect upon 
1ousehold servants, 122 
1otion to have proper ex- 
pression, 259-264 

eland, large part in slave- 
rade, 35, 36 

hical development, hope 
or, 259, 263, 264 

hiopian race, d 

angelists, Negro, need of, 
278; work of, 279 
angelization, task de 
volved upon, 27, 257-264 
olution, working of, 4, 214, 
215 


rmers’ Improvement So- 
siety, 137, 138 

rmville Institutional 
church, 250 

‘ederal Power,” 70 

llatahs, the, 7, 8 

tich, defined, 20, 21; prep- 
aration of, 21, 22; sup- 
posed power of, 21, 22 
tichism, 2, 19-26; export- 
ed to United States and the 
West Indies, 26, 54-56; 
two kinds of, 22, 23 

nancial Embarrassment of 
South, 96, 97 

tzgerald, Bishop, 237 

a, quoted, 17 

x, referred to, 36 

anchise, exercise of, 76, 147 
eedmen’s Bureau, 66; 79, 
80, 86, 89; schools of, 192, 
195 

ee Masons, 134 

issel, Dr. H. B., quoted, 258 


illas, the, 8 
ulloway, Bishop Charles B., 
quoted, 186, 220, 268 


329 


Gambling prevented among 
slaves, 49 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 
mobbed in Boston, 234 

Grand Order of the Galilean 
Fisherman, 135 

Grant, referred to, 71 

Groups, racial, 210-213 

Guinea Coast, 210 


Hall, Dr. G. Stanley, quoted, 
87-89, 175 

ge Alexander, Jr., 
1 


Hamitie Negro, the, 211 

Hampton Institute, 150, 151, 
258; model industrial 
school, 202; trade schools, 
204 

Harrison and Barnes, quoted, 
233, 236 

Hill, Chancellor, quoted, 173 

Holmes, E. H., quoted, 129 

Holy Spirit, the, 60, 61, 238 
2 


77 

Home life, 145, 146, 152-154 

Home owners, 148 

Home Mission Boards, 271, 
287 

Home Missions Council, 2 
federation of Home Mis- 
sion Boards, 271; work for 
Negro, 272-275 

Homes, 148-151 

Hottentots, the, 7, 210 

Hubbard, Dr. G. W., quoted, 
207 


Institutions, State, 196 

Israelites, exodus of, 33; in- 
cident of Babylonish cap- 
tivity, 33 


Jeanes, Miss Anna P., gift of, 
199 
Jefferson, Thomas, attempt 


330 


tocondemn the slave-trade, 
36 


Jesus Christ, xvi, xviii, 27, 2 
54, 56, 57, 60, 238, 361, Pe 
Jones, Rev. C.C. * quoted, 222 


Jones, Rev. J. W., quoted, 
225 

Justice, mutual, 294, 295 

Kaffir, the, 211 

Kindergarten work valuable, 
284 

Kings or chiefs, African, 


rights and powers of, 12 
Kitchen-garden, classes in, 


285 , 
Knights of Pythias, 134 
Labor system, agricultural, 

95. 


Labor unions as regards the 
Negro, 114 

Law and License, quoted, 
1 


69 
Laymen, 290, 292 
Lee, referred to, 71 
Lincoln, referred to, 82 
Livingstone, referred to, 28 
Love, Christian religion based 


on, 261 
Lutheran Church, 242 


McTyire, Bishop, 237 

Melodies, Negro, 238, 302- 
307 

Menzie, quoted, 19 

Merriam, George S., quoted, 
66, 220 

Methodist Episcopal Church, 
226, 233, 235, 236, 239, 
242; in Atlanta, 253 

Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, 227; .uission work 
for slaves, 236, 237; or- 
ganizing colored members 
into a Church, 239, 243 


Index 


cated, 276; pest 2 


56-62, 97-101, 220" 

228-232, 280 
Moffat, referred to, 28 
Money, Confederate, 

United States, 95 


eerie Bayou, ‘Sieisel 

37 
Murphy, Dr. Edward Ga 
pee quoted, 113, 115, 1 
3 b 


Nassau, quoted, 20, 22, 

26, 56 

National Association of 
ored Women, 163, 164 

Natives, African, 9 

Naylor, Wilson 8. qu 

Negritos, the, 7 

Negro, in Africa, 1-30; e 
with two types, 5; b 2 
evil spirits, fetichism, 
witchcraft, 2, 17-27; ‘el 
acteristics, 8-1 2; 
sions, 7, 8; family life 
ing, 13, 14; fathers, 
mothers, 16, 17; polygar 
15, 16; purity ‘largely 
known, 14, 15; slavery 
13; tribal ‘government. 
perfect and unjust ¢ 
tions result, 12, 13; 
of missions for, atte 
with great sacrifice of 
and money, 27, 28 

Negro, in America, 31 
as a slave, 31-64; do 
tie service and farm "4 
44, 51-53; econo 


; 


a 


Index 


eress, 106, 130-141; edu- 
cation during slavery and 
later, 50, 51, 185-217; 
emotion a proper place, 
260-264; fidelity to mas- 
ters during Civil War, 73, 
74; freedom and its first 
dangers, 74-102; franchise 
and citizenship, 80-89; in- 
dustrial life and outlook, 
106-130; melodies, 238, 
302-307; moral and social 
development, 49-53, 143- 
184, 214, 247-260; physi- 
cal well-being, 285-287; 
problem, 293-296; racial 
groups, 210-212; religious 
life and growth, 54, 56-62, 
90, 91, 102, 219-298; sta- 
tistics, see Statistics 

ew York City, 255 

igritos, the, 7 

orth and Northerner, 38, 
62, 68-71, 79-83, 86, 88, 
110, 113-116, 128, 129, 
190, 191, 234, 235, 240, 
255-257, 283, 294 

oyes Academy, 235 

urse, trained, 286, 287 
urseries, day, 284 


ccupations, Negro, 119; 
females engaged in, 123- 
125; kinds of, 120-126; 
three classes of, 126 
dd Fellows, 134 
portunities of Negro, 
North and South, 116 
ganga, or magic doctor, 20, 
21 


age, Thomas Nelson, quot- 
ed, 72, 73, 81, 82 

aine, infidelity of, referred 
to, 59 

arents, transient interest of 


301 


African in their children, 
16, 17 
coe Ellen C., quoted, 18, 


3 
Philadelphia, 116, 256 
Philanthropy, 289, 290 
Physicians, charity practice 
among poor Negroes, 179; 
need of trained Christian 
Negro, 181, 182, 207, 208; 
Long for Negro missionary, 
6 


Pitt, referred to, 36 

Polygamy, 15 

Poor Richard, quoted, 274 

Population, Negro, 110-112, 
316-324 

Prayer, aim of, by African 
heathen, 2, 20; use of, in 
seeking to win freedmen, 91 

Preacher, Negro, 249, 259 

Presbyterian Churches, 
Northern and Southern, 
work among Negroes, 224, 
242 

Price, John Ambrose, quoted, 


32 
Problem, Negro, 293-295 
Proctor, quoted, 238, 239 
Progress, Negro, 138; reli- 
gious, 221 
Protestant Episcopal Church, 
work among Negroes, 223, 


Punishment, judicial, in 
Africa, 12; of slaves in 
Afriea, 2; of slaves in 


America, 44, 45 

“ Quack doctors,” 179 

bai school for Negroes, 
1 

Questions, three, 3 

Racial divisions of Negro, in 
Africa, 7, 8; in America, 
210-212 


302 


Races, two great, 292 

Reconstruction Period, 71, 
72; condition of slave. 
owner and Negro, 74, 75; 
cost of, 80, 81; education 
of Negro neglected, 75, 76; 
Lincoln’s plan of, 82; Ne- 
gro hardships, 92-94 

Reformed Presbyterian 
Chureh, 242 

Reformer, The, 133 

Religion, of Negro, in Africa, 
2, 17-27; present develop- 
ment in "America, Pan 

Revolutionary War, 

Roman Catholics, te ‘Catho- 
lics, Roman 

Rousseau, referred to, 59 


“Scalawag,” 80 

Schools, army, 191, 192; 
Christian, 240, 243-245; 
first Negro, 190, 191; free 
system of, 193- 195; ‘high, 
274; need of common, 
manual, and missionary 
training in, 197, 198, 203; 
normal, 201, 203, 273, 274; 
professional, 207; rural, 
199-201; support of, 199, 
200; trade, 204; under 
Freedmen’s ‘Bureau, 192 

aor ae quoted, ‘66, 87, 
94, 95, 96 

Self peekectn of freed work- 
ing man, 126; three oceur- 
rences which disturbed, 
127 


Self-support of Negro, 107; 
possibilities of, 113-115 

Sewing classes, 284, 285 

“Slave Coast,’’ 32 

Slaves, 13; clothing of, 47; 
education of, 50-54; eman- 
cipation of, 40; expense of, 
42; duties of, 43, 44: field 


Index 


sage ee 47-49, 51, 52; 
to) servants, 
52; lbbaret, 47; ma { 
of, 144, 145; ’ religious gat} 
erings ’ prohibited amon, 
58; religious work for, 5 
56-60 ;_ striking _resul: 
among, 60-62 3 
Slave-trade, among 
peans, 35; horrors of, § 
in the North and in 
South, 38; in the Unite 
States, 35-37; oppositio 
to, 36 
Smith, Amanda, 279 | 
Smith’ RoE: 137 4 
Sm he, Mr., referred to, 8 
Social life, 155-166; cause | 
disease, 178; effects of 
cation upon, "156; formatio 
of class distinetions, 156 
160; hospitality, 157, 158 
mixed blood, 158, 163 3 
Social and economic forex 
116 
as) Progress, referred te 
societies benevolent, 13 
131; criticisms of, 1 
134: insurance, 131, 132 
mutual benefit, 165, 166 
secret, 131; total real es 7 
tate and credit, 136, 137 
South and Southerner, xiii 
Xv, 32, 38, 41-62, 66, 68- 
71, 76, 78-100, 106, ‘110- 
138, 158, 167, 191-197 
206-208, 223-240, 248- 
254, 283, 291, 294 


‘Southern States, 38, 41, 42 


110, 161 
Spirit, the, see Holy Spirit 


Spirits, evil, =i ye wo! 
of, 2, 18-20 4, 25 
“State Rights, # 70 


ie 


Index 


statistics, births, deaths, and 
disease, 173-175; churches, 
223-227, 241-249, 255- 

257; Christians among 

Negroes, 61, 242-246; fe 
male workers, 123-125; 
illiteracy, 323; incomes of 
societies, 132; insurance 
societies, 132; Negroes em- 
ployed, 120, 122, 126, 324; 
Negro population and dis- 
tribution in the United 
States, 110-112, 316-319; 
Negro population in 1860, 
61; prisoners, 166; prop- 
erty owned, 161; slavery 
in 1807 and in 1860, 37; 
ratio of slaveholder to 
slave, 41, 42; schools, 192— 
att True Reformers, 132, 

33 

Strong, Dr., quoted, 120, 121; 
referred to, 241 

Supreme Being, belief in, 17 

Sunday-schools, 91, 226, 246, 
a teacher training, 288, 

1 


Taylor, William, referred to, 


23 
Teachers, need of, 198; value 
of normal training to, 201, 
202 
Temperament, religious, 262 
Thomas, Rev. Samuel, re- 
ferred to, 223 
Thomas, W. H., quoted, 168 
Thompson, George, 234 
‘True Reformers, 132, 133 
‘Tuskegee, 150, 151; model 
industrial sehool, 202; 
_ trade schools, 204 
Tuskegee club, 164 


United States, as a slave- 
trading and slave-holding 


303 


nation, xiii, 31-64; Civil 
War, 70, 72; emancipation 
and Reconstruction Pe- 
riod, 71-89; first years of 
Negro freedom, 71-102; 
later progress, 106-264; 
outlook, 268-296 

University, Central Negro, 
advocated, 208, 209; loca- 
tion of, 208; requirements 
for entrance to, 209 


Vaccination, 178 

Voltaire, referred to, 59 
Voodoo worship, 26 

Vote, Negro’s right to, 115 


Washington, Booker T., 
quoted, 32, 73-76, 106, 
116, 118, 148-151, 220, 
268 

Washington, Mrs. Booker T., 
quoted, 164 

West Indies, fetichism intro- 
duced, 26 

Whittier, John Greenleaf, 234 

“Witchcraft Company,” 24 

Witchcraft, ideas of and re- 
sults, 19-27 

Witch-doctor, power of, 19, 
23, 24, 59; exported to 
United States, 54; 180-183 

Woman, 155; on the Kongo, 
14, 15 

Workmen, Negro, 107-109; 
comparison with white 
man, 130; economic pro- 
gress of, 118; future of, 
129; unskilled, 118, 128 

Wilson, quoted, 56 


Young Men’s Christian Asso- 
ciation, work of, 247 


Zambezi River, 8 
Zulu, the, 211 


stone.” 


OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 


Eprroriau Commirres: T. H. P. Sailer, Chairma 
A. E. Armstrong, T. B. Ray, H. B. Grose, S. Earl Tay 
lor, J. E. McAfee, C. R. Watson, John W. Wood, L. E 
* Wolf, q 


The forward mission study courses are an outgrowth o 
a conference of leaders in young people’s mission work 
held in New York City, December, 1901. To meet th 
need that was manifested at that conference for missiot 
study text-books suitable for young people, two of th 
delegates, Professor Amos R. Wells, of the United Societ; 
of Christian Endeavor, and Mr. 8. Earl Taylor, Chairmai 
of the General Missionary Committee of the Epwortl 
League, projected the Forward Mission Study Courses 
These courses have been officially adopted by the Youngs 
People’s Missionary Movement, and are now under th 


Movement. The books of the Movement are now bei 
used by more than forty home and foreign mission board: 
and societies of the United States and Canada. 


by leading authorities. The entire series when completed 
will comprise perhaps as many as forty text-books. 

The following text-books having a sale of nearly 
600,000 have been published: 


x. The Price of Africa. (Biographical.) By S. Earl 
Taylor. 

2. Into Allthe World. A general survey of missions. 
By Amos R. Wells. 

3. Princely Men in the Heavenly Kingdom. (Bio- 
graphical.) By Harlan P. Beach. 

4. Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom. A study of 
Japan. By John H. De Forest. 

5. Heroes of the Cross in America. Home Missions. 
(Biographical.) By Don O. Shelton. 

6. Daybreak in the Dark Continent. A study of Af- 
rica. By Wilson S. Naylor. 

7. The Christian Conquest of India. A study of 
India. By James M. Thoburn. 

8. Aliens or Americans? A study of Immigration. 
By Howard B. Grose. 

g. The Uplift of China. A study of China. By 
Arthur H. Smith. 

10. The Challenge of the City. A study of the City. 
By Josiah Strong. 

11. The Why and How of Foreign Missions. A 
study of the relation of the home Church to the foreign 
missionary enterprise. By Arthur J. Brown. 

12. The Moslem World. A study of the Moham- 
medan World. By Samuel M. Zwemer. 

13. The Frontier. A study of the New West. By 
Ward Platt. 

14. South America: Its Missionary Problems. A 
study of South America. By Thomas B. Neely. 

15. The Upward Path: The Evolution of a Race. A 
study of the Negro. By Mary Helm. 

16. Korea in Transition. A study of Korea. By 


James S. Gale. 
’ 


published especially for use among yo 
' 1, Uganda’s White Man of Work. 1 
ander Mackay of Africa. By Sophi 

2. Servants of the King. A series 
of famous home and foreign missionaries. By 
Speer. i 

3. Under Marching Orders. The Story of Mary Por- 
ter Gamewell of China. By Ethel Daniels Hubbard. — 

These books are published by mutual arrangemen’ 
among the home and foreign mission boards, to whon 
all orders should be addressed. They are bound uni 
formly and are sold at 50 cents, in cloth, and 35 cents, 
in paper; postage, 8 cents extra. 


_ > ae, 


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cO to s ee Y 
™N 
= C ce 
Oo ‘ont rel Lu j 


DATE DUE 


297 


MAY i 


DEMCO 38 


OCT 2 


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D00904132J 


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